Estimation of Ferric

In Magnetic Tape
apess

V.Arun Sabhapathi

J.Dharanidaran

S.Tarun Cousik

XII B
 ESTIMATION
OF
FERRIC
IN
MAGNETIC TAPES

V.Arun Sabhapathi
J.Dharanidaran
S.Tarun Cousik
© Copyright, 2011 Elsea publishing Ltd.
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 Contents
Bona fide
3
Acknowledgement
4
Introduction
5
Theory
8
Experiment
12
Calculation
16
References
18

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A. Krishnan
BONA
BONA FIDE
FIDE
HEAD OF THE CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT
P S SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL
MYLAPORE, CHENNAI -600004

I hear by certify that the work done in this project entitled Estimation
of Ferric in
Magnetic Tapes is a bona fide work done by V.Arun Sabhapathi,
J.Dharanidaran and S.Tarun Cousik.
Roll no:
______________________________________________________________________________
in the department of Chemistry of P S Senior Secondary School under my supervision,
during the academic year 2010-2011.

I certify that the work represents independent work on the part of the candidate.

DATE: SIGNATURE:

Submitted for the practical examination held in the school centre on ___________________

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMNIER

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to thank Mrs. R.Sundari, (M.Sc., B.Ed.),

for her continued support and encouragement towards the
completion of our project.

We also express our gratitude to Mrs. B.Jayalakshmi for

her invaluable assistance.

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 INTRODUCTION
The Tape
The tape itself is actually very simple. It consists of a thin plastic base material, and
bonded to this base is a coating of ferric oxide powder. The oxide is normally mixed with
a binder to attach it to the plastic, and it also includes some sort of dry lubricant to avoid
wearing out the recorder.

Iron oxide (FeO) is the red rust we commonly see. Ferric oxide (Fe2O3) is another oxide
of iron. Maghemite or gamma ferric oxide is a common name for the substance.

This oxide is a ferromagnetic material, meaning that if you expose it to a magnetic field it
is permanently magnetized by the field. That ability gives magnetic tape two of its most
appealing features:
• You can record anything you want instantly and the tape will remember what
you recorded for playback at any time.
• You can erase the tape and record something else on it any time you like.

There are two parts to any audio magnetic recording system: the recorder itself (which
also acts as the playback device) and the tape it uses as the storage medium.

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*

If one were to look inside a compact cassette, you will find that it is a fairly simple
device. There are two spools and the long piece of tape, two rollers and two halves of a
plastic outer shell with various holes and cutouts to hook the cassette into the drive. There
is also a small felt pad that acts as a backstop for the record/playback head in the tape
player. In a 90-minute cassette, the tape is 135 meters long.

Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating
on a long, narrow strip of plastic non biodegradable polymer.

It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording.

Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders
and video tape recorders. A device that stores computer data on magnetic tape is a tape
drive (tape unit, streamer).

Magnetic tape revolutionized broadcast and recording. When all radio was live, it
allowed programming to be prerecorded. At a time when gramophone records were
recorded in one take, it allowed recordings in multiple parts, which mixed and edited with
tolerable loss in quality.

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 It is a key technology in early computer development, allowing unparalleled amounts of
data to be mechanically created, stored for long periods, and to be rapidly accessed.

Today, other technologies can perform the functions of magnetic tape. In many cases
these technologies have replaced tapes.

Over years, magnetic tape can suffer from deterioration called sticky-shed syndrome,
caused by absorption of moisture into the binder of the tape, it can render the tape
unusable.

Nowadays, due to incoming of products like Compact Disks(CD), portable disks and
Universal Serial Bus drives(USB). They have shown a dominant increase in sales
throughout the world, tapes have been neglected and they pose a serious threat to the
environment as they are dumped in large numbers especially in developing countries like
India ,Pakistan, Bangladesh and China .

Extraction minerals such as iron, chromium,and nickel from these dumped tapes are
considered to be profitable business and also a environmental friendly measure.

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 THEORY

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IRON(III) OXIDE
Iron(III) oxide or ferric oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula Fe2O3. It is of
one of the three main oxides of iron, the other two being iron(II) oxide (FeO), which is
rare, and iron(II,III) oxide (Fe3O4), which also occurs naturally as the mineral magnetite.
As the mineral known as hematite, Fe2O3 is the main source of the iron for the steel
industry. Fe2O3 is paramagnetic, reddish brown, and readily attacked by acids.

Properties

Molecular formula Fe2O3

Molar mass 159.69 g/mol

Appearance red-brown solid

Odor odorless

Density 5.242 g/cm3, solid

Melting point
1566 °C (1838 K) decomp.

Solubility in water insoluble

Structure
Crystal structure rhombohedral

Thermo chemistry
Std enthalpy of −825.50
formation∆fHo298

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Para magnetism

Para magnetism is a form of magnetism that occurs only in the presence of an externally
applied magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials have a relative magnetic permeability
greater or equal to unity, i.e. a positive magnetic susceptibility, and hence are attracted to
magnetic fields.

Delocalization

In many metallic materials the electrons are itinerant, i.e. they travel through the solid
more or less as an electron gas. This is the result of very strong interactions (overlap)
between the wave functions of neighboring atoms in the extended lattice structure. The
wave functions of the valence electrons thus form a band with equal numbers of spins up
and down. When exposed to an external field only those electrons close to the Fermi level
will respond and a small surplus of one type of spins will result. This effect is a weak
form of paramagnetic known as Pauli-paramagnetic. The effect always competes with a
diamagnetic response of opposite sign due to all the core electrons of the atoms. Stronger
forms of magnetism usually require localized rather than itinerant electrons. However in
some cases a band structure can result in which there are two delocalized sub bands with
states of opposite spins that have different energies. If one sub band is preferentially
filled over the other, one can have itinerant ferromagnetic order. This usually only
happens in relatively narrow (d-)bands, which are poorly delocalized.

s and p electrons

Generally, strong delocalization in a solid due to large overlap with neighboring wave
functions tends to lead to pairing of spins (quenching) and thus weak magnetism. This is
why s- and p-type metals are typically either Pauli-paramagnetic or as in the case of gold
even diamagnetic. In the latter case the diamagnetic contribution from the closed shell
inner electrons simply wins from the weak paramagnetic term of the almost free
electrons.

d and f electrons

Stronger magnetic effects are typically only observed when d- or f-electrons are involved.
Particularly the latter are usually strongly localized. Moreover the size of the magnetic
moment on a lanthanide atom can be quite large as it can carry up to 7 unpaired electrons.
This is one reason why superstrong magnets are typically based on lanthanide elements
like neodymium or samarium.

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Molecular localization

Of course the above picture is a generalization as it pertains to materials with an

extended lattice rather than a molecular structure. Molecular structure can also lead to
localization of electrons. Although there are usually energetic reasons why a molecular
structure results such that it does not exhibit partly filled orbital’s (i.e. unpaired spins),
some non-closed shell moieties do occur in nature. Molecular oxygen is a good example.
Even in the frozen solid it contains di-radical molecules resulting in paramagnetic
behavior. The unpaired spins reside in orbital’s derived from oxygen p wave functions,
but the overlap is limited to the one neighbor in the O2 molecules. The distances to other
oxygen atoms in the lattice remain too large to lead to delocalization and the magnetic
moments remain unpaired.

Method used for Quantitative estimation

Since direct estimation of ferric ion through titration is not possible The Fe3+ ions in
Fe2O3 are reduced to Fe2+ using a reducing agent of stannous chloride in an acidic
medium of HCl.

Once all the Fe3+ ions are reduced to Fe2+ ions, this solution is boiled in HCl medium
and titrated against the potassium dichromate solution and for a constant volume of
potassium dichromate titrated, a small volume of ferricyanide is added to validate the
presence of Fe2+.The appearance of Prussian blue color validates the process.

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EXPERIMENT

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AIM:-
To estimate the content of ferric iron present in the whole of the given ferric oxide
solution by external indicator method, given we are supplied with pure crystals of
potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7).

PRINCIPLE :-
Ferric Iron is in the highest oxidation state. It is reduced to ferrous iron titrating with the
standard dichromate solution. The reduction is carried out by before the use of stannous
chloride solution and concentrated HCl acid. Excess of stannous chloride is removed by
Mercuric chloride. Potassium ferricyanide is used as the external indicator.

Equivalent mass of ferric iron = 55.85 (Atomic mass of Iron).

Procedure

Preparation of standard Potassium dichromate Solution

1. Accurately about 1.25g of Potassium dichromate of AR quality is weighed in a

chemical balance.
2. It is transferred into 250 ml flask and the solution is made up to the mark.

3. The solution is shaken well to get a homogeneous solution.

4. Solution of the known strength is taken in the burette after a thorough rinsing with
it.

Extraction of ferric from tape

1. The tape is dissolved in sufficient quantity of acetone.

2. Excess acetone is removed by keeping the solution in water bath.

3. The dry left over black powder is taken in a volumetric flask.

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Stage I: Reduction of Ferric Iron to Ferrous Iron

1. The given ferric Iron powder is made up to 100 ml in a volumetric flask.

2. It is thoroughly shaken to get a homogeneous solution.

3. Exactly 20 ml of the solution is pipette out into a clean 250 ml (preferably

corning) beaker.

4. About 5 ml of conc. HCl is added to it & is heated to boiling.

5. Freshly prepared stannous chloride solution is added in drops to the hot solution
until just the yellow colour of the solution disappears.
6. A few more drops of Stannous Chloride solution are added in excess.

7. The solution is diluted to about 150 ml and cooled to 200C and then 10 ml of a
saturated solution of mercuric chloride is added to it. A thin silky white precipitate
is formed in the solution.

State II: Titration of Ferrous Iron Solution Vs Standard Dichromate Solution:

1. The reduced turbid solution containing ferrous iron is mixed with about 20 ml of
dilute sulphuric acid.

2. About 10 ml standard potassium dichromate solution is added from the burette.

3. During the course of the titration, the solution in the conical flask or beaker is
stirred well.

4. A drop of the solution in the beaker is treated with a droplet of potassium

ferricyanide solution placed on a porcelain tile. (Allow a few minutes to observe
the colour change).

5. If the solution turns blue in colour, it indicates the presence of ferrous iron in
solution.

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 6. The titration is continued by adding 1 ml every time and then testing a drop of
solution in the beaker with ferricyanide as above. The addition of dichromate
solution is continued until a drop of the solution gives a bottle green color with
ferricyanide solution.

7. The burette reading is noted. It gives the range in which the end point occurs.

8. To find the accurate value, in the second experiment, the standard dichromate
solution is run in without testing till one ml before the range fixed. At this
juncture, dichromate solution is added in drops after testing the solution from time
to time with ferricyanide solution until the solution gives no colour with the
indicator.

9. The titration is repeated to get concordant values. From the volume of dichromate
solution the strength of ferric iron solution, and hence its amount is calculated.

Result
The amount of ferric iron present in the whole of the given solution = .38 g

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NOTE :-
(1) It is sufficient to prepare 0.2% potassium ferricyanide indicator solution to be used
in the titration.

(2) To avoid error due to volume loss, pointed glass rod must be used to test the
solution. The glass rod is washed with distilled water every time before use.

(3) The indicator in small drops may be placed on a porcelain tile with depression.

(4) The indicator solution should not contain ferrocyanide solution. Otherwise it
readily gives blue colour with ferric iron present in the solution.

Calculation

Weight of K2Cr2O7 crystals in 250 ml of the solutions = 0.15625 g

Equivalent mass of oxalic acid = 49.03

Gram equivalents = Mass in g

Eq. mass
= 0.003186

Normality of the standard K2Cr2O7 solution = Gram equivalents of the solute

Volume of solution in liters

= 0.003186
.250

N
K2Cr2O7 = 0.1

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Volume of K2Cr2O7 solution consumed in the reaction (V1) = 13.8 ml

Volume of Fe+3 iron solution (V2) = 20 ml

Strength of Fe+3 iron solution (N2) = ?

∴ V1 x N1 = V2 x N2

N2 = V1 x N1
V2

= 13.8 ml x 0.1
20
N +3
Fe solution = 0.069
Amount of ferric iron present in the whole of the given solution =

Normality x Eq. Mass of the Fe+3

10

= 0.069 x 55.85
10

= 0.385365 g

Weight of tape with the plastic disk = 10.2039 g

Weight of the plastic disk = 0.9 g

∴ Weight of the tape = 9.3039 g

% composition of ferric oxide in tape = 0.385365 x 100

9.3039

= 4.1419 %

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 Bibliography
Name Link
WIKIPEDIA
Iron(III) oxide http://goo.gl/BYZ7X
Magnetic tape http://goo.gl/4UjXJ
Para magnetism http://goo.gl/yQXlN
Iron oxide http://goo.gl/s7Scm

ADOBE
Acrobat http://goo.gl/I94Zz
Photoshop http://goo.gl/yfngO

GOOGLE
Search http://google.com
Documents editing & storage http://docs.google.com

CLIR

Magnetic Tape Storage and Handling http://goo.gl/usQX2

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How Stuff Work
How Tape Recorders Work http://goo.gl/iBDPd

Books
Basic principles of practical chemistry http://goo.gl/VF9p1

By

V.Venkateshwaran
R.Veeraswamy
A.R.Kulandaivelu

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