Stoichiometry Lab Report. Aim: To determine what solid product is produced in the decomposition of NaHCO3, based on the pre-calculated mass of the solid products versus the mass found in the experiment.

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Chemistry Lab Report

Dr. Terbush

Lotje Mulder

                                Stoichiometry Lab Report

Aim: To determine what solid product is produced in the decomposition of NaHCO3, based on the pre-calculated mass of the solid products versus the mass found in the experiment.

Hypothesis: I think that the solid product produced from the decomposition of baking soda will be Na2CO3 because out of the three possible products it weighs the most. The two bi-products H2O and CO2 weigh almost nothing and therefore subtract almost nothing from the weight of the reactant.

Theory: In this experiment, two branches in chemistry are involved: chemical decomposition as well as stoichiometry. Decomposition is the separation of a chemical compound into two or more elements or other compounds. It can be defined as the opposite of chemical synthesis. In this experiment we are using thermal decomposition because we are using extreme environmental conditions like heat to limit the stability that the chemical compound ordinarily has. The reaction is usually endothermic because it is absorbing heat because heat is required to break the chemical bonds in the compound in order to undergo decomposition. In decomposition of carbonates it is knows that carbon dioxide and water is almost always one of the products. However with others it is metal oxide and carbon dioxide.  You can see this from the balanced equations because carbon dioxide is a bi-product in all three cases.

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The second branch that this experiment explores is stoichiometry. It deals with the quantitative relationships between the reactants and the products in chemical reactions. The quantitative relationships primarily cover the ratio of moles between the different reactants and products in a reaction. This is reaction stoichiometry. With this ratio, composition stoichiometry can be used to calculate the amount or the weight of the products with any given mass or number of moles of the reactant.

1. NaHCO3  NaOH + CO2

2. 2NaHCO3  Na2O + 2CO2 + H2O

3. 2NaHCO3  Na2CO3 + CO2 + H2O

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