Burning Alcohols.

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Chemistry coursework

Sarah Kennedy                        Burning Alcohols

We are going to be doing an experiment that will show us how much heat energy is produced by burning an alcohol. The amount of heat given out when a mole of fuel burns is called heat combustion(    H combustion). We will test how much energy is produced by calculating the heat given of from the alcohol burned by the spirit lamp.

        In this each experiment the variable is going to be the different alcohols used. I am going to have four different alcohols; Methanol, Propanol, Ethanol and Butanol. The outcome of this experiment will be the mass difference from the beginning to the end and the temperature change. From that we can find out the heat per mole given out for all of theses alcohols.

Method:

        Safety is important whilst doing this experiment so hair should be tied back, overall and goggles should be worn during experiment and the surface where the experiment is taking place should be clear.

The equipment needed for this experiment will be; a retort stand, clamp, boss, measuring cylinder, thermometer, glass beaker, heat proof mat, splint, spirit lamp with a lid, draught shield, boss and a balance.

        Light the spirit lamp and measure the size of the flame then record it. Extinguish the flame by putting the lid back onto the lamp. Weigh the lamp on a balance with its lid then record its mass. Then fill a beaker with 50cm3 of water. Then you place the beaker in the clamp and measure how far away the base of the beaker is to the bass of the stand. Measure the length of the wick and record that down. Measure the temperature of the water and record, then light the lamp and place it underneath the beaker. You should start a stopwatch to record how long the experiment took to undergo. Stir the water so that all of the water is being heated and not just the part above the flame. Put the draught shield up around the experiment, white side facing inwards, so that any heat lost will be reflected back towards the experiment. Keep stirring and leave the experiment until the water reaches 30Co. Measure the exact temperature change. Extinguish the flame by placing the lid over the flame.

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        The equipment should be set up as the following diagram:

        

Now weigh the mass of the lamp again and record it. All the results that have been recorded should be put into a table like the following:

The mass of alcohol burned = 2.33g

(Mass of lamp and lid before - mass of lamp and lid after experiment)

We only did this experiment once because it was a pilot experiment, if it was a proper experiment then we ...

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