An investigation into the heat of combustion of alcohol's

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Wednesday 19th June 2002 / Jonathan Hayes / 10T

        

An investigation into the heat of combustion of alcohol’s

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE HEAT OF COMBUSTION OF ALCOHOL’S        

PLANNING        

Introduction        

Apparatus        

Method        

Diagram        

How I will make my experiment a fair test        

Safety        

Preliminary work        

Results        

What I have found out from my preliminary work        

My results to my experiment        

Result Averages        

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS        

The energy transferred to the water.        

Energy Transfer per gram of alcohol        

The Heat of combustion per mole        

My Graph        

Conclusion        

EVALUATION        

How I could make my experiment more reliable.        

Are my results accurate?        

What I would change if I repeated this experiment.        

Planning

Introduction

I am trying to determine the heat of combustion for the first five alcohols, which are; ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanol and hexanol. I am trying to determine whether the amount of Carbon atoms on the molecule affects the heat energy given out by the molecule when burned. I believe that as the size of the molecule increases and the chain of carbons grows longer, then the heat energy given out will increase. I think that this is because when the molecule bonds are broken then they take in energy and then when the bonds are being made they give out energy. In a large molecule, more bonds are made so more energy is given out.

Apparatus

  • Clamp stand
  • Clamp
  • Copper calorimeter
  • Spirit burner
  • Matches
  • Thermometer
  • Ruler
  • Metal safety tray
  • Top pan balance (digital scales)
  • Measuring cylinder

Method

I will need to collect all of the above apparatus and then put it together like in the diagram below. I will weigh the alcohol I will be burning and then put it under the copper calorimeter. I will use a measuring cylinder to measure out 100cm3 into the copper calorimeter. I will light my Flame, which will be 5cm under the calorimeter. I will use my thermometer to determine the temperature and then go up to 60°c because that is how much I will change the temperature by. When the water has risen to 60°c I will then put the lid on the spirit burner to extinguish the flame and then I will weigh the spirit burner again. By taking the new weight from the original weight I can then work out how much of the alcohol has been used. I will then repeat this experiment another four times with the other alcohols until I have done all five. I will repeat this twice to gain another set of results so I can compare them and identify trends and patterns consistent in both sets of results.

Diagram

 

How I will make my experiment a fair test

There is not really that much I can do to help make this experiment a fair test but I will; cool the copper calorimeter completely down by running it under cold water for a few minutes so that the water doesn’t get warmed up by being in contact with it. I will also make sure that I have 100cm3 of water each time in the calorimeter. The temperature will always go up to 60° each time as well. I will also keep the height of the calorimeter at 5cm each time.

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Safety

I will make this experiment safe by wearing safety goggles at all times from before I get my equipment out until it has been put away. I will need to be careful when striking matches and extremely careful around the naked flame when the spirit burner is alight. I will need to be careful when handling the alcohols and walking across the laboratory with them. Also, I will be using a metal safety tray to do my experiment in, just in case any spirit burners are accidentally knocked over.

Preliminary work

Because this is ...

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