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AS and A Level: Inorganic Chemistry

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Top tips for writing reactions

  1. 1 Remember to balance the charges on any ionic compounds. The common ions are NO3-, SO42-, OH- and CO32-.
  2. 2 Do not forget to put state symbols on all of your balanced reactions.
  3. 3 Each side of the reaction must have the same number of atoms on it. Think about a balanced seesaw.
  4. 4 Your three main acids that you will use have the formulae HNO3 (nitric acid), H2SO4 (sulphuric acid) and HCl (hydrochloric acid).
  5. 5 Remember that all metal hydroxides and metal oxides are bases. This will help you when using word equations to figure out your products.

Five common mistakes students make when studying inorganic chemistry

  1. 1 When observing a gas being produced, you would not write “I saw a gas” as most gases are invisible. Instead you should write “I saw bubbling / fizzing / effervescence”.
  2. 2 When asked to write a word equation, students often write a symbol equation and vice versa. This will get you no marks in the exam.
  3. 3 - When asked for “standard conditions” people often say “room temperature”. This is not sufficient. You must say 25 degrees celsius (298K). Other standard conditions you must know are 1 atmosphere of pressure and concentrations of 1 mol dm-.
  4. 4 If you are asked to state a colour change you must state the initial and final colour.
  5. 5 Students often give group 2 metals a 1+ charge. Remember that all group two metals (Be, Mg, Ca, St, Ba, Ra) have a 2+ charge.

Five word equations that you must know

  1. 1 Acid + base / alkali = salt + water (eg HCl + NaOH becomes NaCl + H2O)
  2. 2 Metal carbonate = metal oxide + carbon dioxide (eg CaCO3 becomes CaO + CO2)
  3. 3 Metal + oxygen = metal oxide (2Mg + O2 becomes 2MgO)
  4. 4 Metal + water = metal hydroxide + hydrogen (eg 2Na + 2H2O becomes 2NaOH + H2)
  5. 5 Metal oxide + water = metal hydroxide (eg CaO + H2O becomes Ca(OH)2)

  • Marked by Teachers essays 2
  • Peer Reviewed essays 9

  1. The purpose of this experiment was to prepare a sample of Aspirin and measure its boiling point

    There is a less chance of blocked arteries causing the amount of blood flowing to decrease and thus causing cardiac arrest. (Ling, 1994) Aspirin has been becoming increasingly popular with patients that have experienced a heart attack to avoid any recurrence taking place or tissue death surrounding the cardiac muscle. Aspirin can also be defined as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and Aspirin being one of the first to be classed as one. (Greenlaw, 2005) These are medications with analgesics that reduce fever and have anti-inflammatory effects.

    • Word count: 2257

  2. Anion Test- Testing for negative ions in solutions.. Applied science unit 3 (AQA)

    The results that I get I would then record them in my results table. Risk Assessment: Name of hazard Hazard Safety Precautions Emergency action Risk level (Low/Medium/High) Image Pipette Pipettes are used for transferring chemicals from one place to another, they can also be used to measure the amount of chemical being transferred, whilst using the pipette it could have some leftover of chemical/acid which could cause irritation. You should first make sure that the entire chemical has been emptied out from the pipette and then you should make sure that you handle it with care.

    • Word count: 925

  3. Flame Test Experiment

    Mat Risk assessment Name of hazard Hazard Safety Precautions Emergency Action Risk Level Bunsen Burner (Could start a fire) You may not see the flame and accidentally burn yourself or someone else could burn themselves too. Make sure you don?t place your hands anywhere near the flame, tie the hair up so it isn?t in the way. Always make sure that you use a safety mat as this prevents fires. When you have finished using the Bunsen burner you should turn it off to prevent someone from burning themselves. If you have a burn on your hand, place under cold water then seek medical attention, if anything worse occurs such as clothes catch fire which spreads then seek immediate medical attention.

    • Word count: 1406
3 essays

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