The aim of this investigation is to analyse mummion, which is an inorganic solid that is obtained from dried up lake beds.

Make sure to wear lab coat and safety goggles throughout the whole experiment.  

Apparatus:

• Mummion(5g)
• Electronic weighing balance
• Conical flask
• Distilled water
• Evaporating basin
• Bunsen burner
• Tripod
• Heatproof mat
• Filter paper
• Beaker
• Buchner funnel

Justification of apparatus:

Method:

1. First of all complete an appropriate risk assessment.
2. Collect all the apparatus you require for this experiment.
3. Weigh out around 5g of your impure sample of mummion using a weighing scale.
4. Then add your weighed sample to 100cm3 of distilled water in a conical flask.
5. Then stir and dissolve the Mummion, leaving the sand and iron (III) oxide as insoluble solids.
6. Then use filtering paper to filter the mixture to remove all the insoluble impurities.
7. Next, boil the filtrate which then is a colourless solution of mummion, in an evaporating basin until when there’s only about 15cm3 remain. Take precautions as the solution may spit out when being boiled.
8. Let the solution cool down when there’s white crystals of mummion remaining in the basin.
9. Then remove the crystals from the liquid by filtration and then dry them on a filter paper in air.

Flame test:

1. Using a tong the wire loop was dipped into hydrochloric acid
2. This wire loop contaminated with hydrochloric acid is then held in the blue flame of the Bunsen burner.
3. After this, there should be a instant colour change

Annion Test:

Results:

Flame test:

Flame test was carried out to define what cation was present in the mummion crystals. The colour of flame that we got was of yellow/orange, by looking at this I could say that chloride was present in the mummion.

Test for carbonate anion:

This was carried out using test tubes and the colour change was observed. This was to test whether a negative or positive ion was present.

Test for ‘Carbonate anion’ CO32- . CO32- (aq) + 2H +(aq)→ CO2  (gas) + H2O(l).

Result:

This test was negative. This was not present in the mummion.

Test for halide ion:

Bromide was present in the mummion.

Test for sulphate:

Results:

Conclusion:

By looking at the results that I obtained for the flame test I can say that there was chloride present as the flame turned to an orangey/yellow colour.  By looking at the results that I have obtained for the carbonate anion test, I can see that there was not a carbonate anion present as the test resulted negative. My halide ion test results show me that the halide ion that was present was bromide. When testing for halide ion, it was really hard to tell what halide ion was actually present as there was a creamy white ppt formed. Iodine is shown but it’s actually bromide.  I can also conclude that there was not a carbonate anion present in the mummion. By looking at the result that I gained for the sulphate test I can see that sulphate was present in the mummion as the test was positive for sulphate as a white precipitate had formed in the test tube.