Investigating The Energy Change During A Neutralisation Reaction.

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Henal Patel                        

Investigating The Energy Change During A Neutralisation Reaction

INTRODUCTION:

How the change in temperature affects the amount of energy taken in, or given out during a neutralisation reaction?

AIM:

I am going to investigate the change in temperature, which happens during the process of neutralisation. The acid I will use is Hydrochloric Acid and my alkali will be

Sodium Hydroxide.

Acids and Alkali’s react together to form neutral substances, this is a process, which is known as neutralisation. A neutralisation reaction takes place when an acid and an alkali react with each other to form salt and water.

The strength or weakness of an acid or alkali is measured on a pH scale. A strong acid will be on a pH of 1.5, however, a strong alkali will have a pH of 14, and the

pH value of 7 would be neutral.

Acids are soluble in water, the react with carbonates to give salt, carbon dioxide and water. Acid solutions also conduct electricity but are decomposed by it, which shows that the acids consist of ions, which suggests that all acids contain H+ ions.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE ENERGY CHANGE / VARIABLES:

  • TEMPERATURE
  • Concentration of Sodium Hydroxide
  • Concentration of Hydrochloric Acid
  • The Volume of Acid and Alkali

INDEPENDANT VARIABLE:

The factor I will change during the experiment will be the amount of

Hydrochloric acid. I intend to use five different concentrations of hydrochloric acid and they will be:

  • 1 m
  • 0.8 m
  • 0.6 m
  • 0.4 m
  • 0.2 m

DEPENDANT VARIABLE:

The factor I will measure during the experiment, will the temperature change in the solution of the alkali and acid? I will do this by:

Measuring the initial temperature of the solution

Adding the alkali – sodium hydroxide

Measure the temperature after 1 minute preferably after the reaction has taken place.

Record the difference between the two temperatures’ in a table

CONTROLLED VARIABLES:

There will a number of factors I will keep the same in my experiment and throughout the experiment:

The concentration of Sodium Hydroxide:

  • Volume Of Acid
  • Volume Of Alkali

I intend to keep the volumes of the acid and alkali constant throughout my experiment by using a measuring cylinder to measure out the quantities of each liquid.

PREDICTION AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE:

I predict that as I decrease the amount of Hydrochloric Acid, the amount of heat given off will decrease.

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There will be less strong bonds being made and weaker ones in its place, meaning there will be less Na-Cl bonds being made and more H-OH bonds being made. Also, because the strong bonds are less, he total heat given off will be less. Neautralisation reactions are usually exothermic.

Acids are compounds of non-metals with simple molecular structure. They all contain hydrogen (H) covalently bonded to other elements.

Acids are also soluble in water and produce solutions with a pH of less 7. They will turn litmus paper red and turn universal indicator an orange/red colour. Acids ...

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**** A good account of the experiment with clear explanations of the steps followed and detailed background information. A little more careful use of scientific terminology would be be helpful however.