Procedure
First, we measured the weight of a crucible and of the copper used (see table), which was in the form of six copper tacks. The copper tacks were put in a crucible, which was filled with sulphur. To get a reaction, the crucible, with the lid on, was heated for five minutes with a Bunsen burner, and copper sulphide was produced. The reason why to have lid on was to prevent that oxygen would have reacted with the sulphur. After the five minutes of burning, the lid was taken off. The excessive sulphur now reacted with oxygen and sulphur dioxide was produced, which is a gas, and therefore it did not stay in the crucible. After the procedure of burning, the mass of the crucible with content was measured.
Data
The molar mass was easily found by looking at the periodic table. was as previously mentioned measured by putting the six copper tacks on a scale. was given by the weight of the final product, copper sulphide, subtracted with the mass of. As the final mass was 2.21 g (no crucible),
Using the formula, the amount of copper and sulphur was calculated. The ratio was calculated through dividing the amount of copper with the amount of sulphur.
Conclusion
The ratio of 2:1 concludes that we will have 2 copper ions per each sulphur ion. Thus, the following formula is appropriate, as every sulphur ion requires 2 copper ions to reach neutrality:
If we trust this perception, our final table would look like this:
This further proves our conclusions, as everything in this last table adds up as it should. For an example, the molar mass of g/mol and the molar mass of sulphur is evidentially 32.0666 g/mol. These two figures quite perfectly add up to the molar mass of Cu2S, just as they are supposed to do.
The answer to our given assignment is hence: Sulphur reacting with copper, forms
copper(I) sulphide, also known as Cu2S.
