MCU Basic Education Department FIRST QUARTER SY 2020-2021

HOME-BASED LABORATORY IN GENERAL CHEMISTRY 2

Laboratory No. 2
Topic: Intermolecular Force of Attraction
Student’s Name: Calicdan, Rochelle G. Strand/Gr. and Section: STEM 12-7
SCORE:_______________ Remarks:_____________________________________________________________________________
Teacher: Ms. Abegail Y. Payuyo

Objective:
• Describe the general types of intermolecular forces and demonstrate how intermolecular
forces affect physical properties such as evaporation and surface tension.

I. EVAPORATIVE COOLING

Evaporation occurs when a substance goes from the liquid phase to the gas phase. In order to
evaporate, a liquid molecule must have enough energy (kinetic energy) to overcome the
intermolecular attractions. When the liquid molecule does evaporate, the liquid molecules left
behind have lower kinetic energy, which means a lower temperature in the liquid. Evaporation
also cools the surrounding air because the liquid molecules that have evaporated have small
kinetic energy compared to the air molecules, lowering the average kinetic energy of molecules in
that area.

Why does your skin feel cool as water evaporates? Your skin feels cool because heat is being
transferred from your body to the water molecules. This allows the water molecules to have
enough kinetic energy to continue evaporation. The more water that evaporates from your skin,
the cooler your skin feels.

Materials needed:
• Two small glasses
• Water
• Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol)

Procedure:
• Pour a small amount of water into one glass and a small amount of alcohol into another.
• Dip one finger into the water and one finger into the alcohol.
• Remove your fingers from the liquids at the same time and let them dry in the air.

Guide Questions:

1. Describe what happens/ write your observation:

-The isopropyl alcohol dries up with my finger faster than the water, it also gives a
cooling effect. After some time, the water also dries up but the alcohol is already gone.

2. One finger should feel cooler than the other. Which one is it?
-The isopropyl alcohol

3. Is the cooler finger experiencing more or less evaporation than the warmer finger?
-The cooler finger experiences more evaporation because the hydrogen bonds
present in the water molecules are greater than the alcohol which causes the water to dry
slowly than the alcohol.

4. If a liquid is evaporating more quickly, what does that say about the strength of the
intermolecular attractions between the liquid molecules? (Strong or weak?)
-The molecules with strong intermolecular attractions will evaporate slower than
the molecules with weak intermolecular bonds because liquids that evaporates faster have
a low force of attraction.

5. Which liquid has stronger intermolecular forces, water or isopropyl alcohol?

-Water took longer to evaporate as it also has the stronger intermolecular forces
than the isopropyl alcohol.

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MCU Basic Education Department FIRST QUARTER SY 2020-2021

6. Why will wrapping a bottle in a wet cloth produce a cooler bottle than placing the bottle
in a bucket of cold water?
-Wrapping a bottle in a wet cloth will cause the water to evaporate from the cloth
and when the heat is absorbed by the bottle, the water in the bottle will be colder. If the
bottle will be put in a bucket of cold water, it will only get cold just like the water in the
bucket and won’t make it colder.

7. I have friends who live in Las Vegas where it gets quite warm. The consoling phrase that I
hear when I visit in the summer is “At least it’s a dry heat”. Why do you feel warmer when
the humidity is high vs. when the humidity is low (as in Las Vegas)?
-It will feel warmer when the humidity of the air is high because it increases the
moisture levels, as it will also make the evaporation slow so it results to hotness and sticky
feeling. In the other hand, when humidity is low, it is cooler but our skin will be not like a
hydrated one.

II. RUNAWAY PEPPER

Surface tension is the elastic tendency found at the surface of a liquid. You see the effects of
surface tension all the time in ponds and lakes when bugs “walk” on the water surface. Where
does surface tension come from? Hydrogen bonds. In a container of water, the water molecules
in the middle of the container are being attracted through hydrogen bonds to water molecules all
around them. Water molecules at the surface, however, do not have any molecules above them,
and are pulled sideways and downward. This sideways pulling results in the phenomenon of
surface tension. This surface tension can be broken by a surfactant or detergent such as soap.

Materials needed:
• Clean shallow dish, pan, skillet, or plate (that can hold water)
• Tap Water
• Pepper or cinnamon
• Bar of soap (small)

Procedure:
• Fill a clean shallow dish or pan of water.
• Sprinkle pepper or cinnamon on it.

Guide Questions:
1. Explain why the pepper or cinnamon floats on the water/ write your observation.
-The pepper floats on the water as I sprinkled it, because the water is having a
great surface tension that holds its molecules together. Pepper is a non-polar molecule
making it a hydrophobic that’s why the water molecules isn’t attracted to it, also, water is
a polar molecule.

2. Touch the bar of soap to the center of the pan. Describe what you observe and come up
with a reasonable explanation for it. (Hint: Water is attracted to water – that’s why its
surface tension is so great. What does soap appear to do?)
-As I dip the soap on to the center of water, the pepper moves away from it and
went to the edges of the plate. I observed that the soap appears to crack the great surface
tension of the water. The hydrogen bonds that holds the water molecules together, move
away from soap to keep their surface tension. So, as the soap smashes the surface tension
of the water molecules, the pepper came with the water molecules.

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MCU Basic Education Department FIRST QUARTER SY 2020-2021

III. MILK RAINBOW

Food coloring is an aqueous solution while milk contains non-polar fat molecules.
It will help to review the structure of soap molecules.

“Polar head” “Nonpolar tail”

(Hydrophilic) (Hydrophobic)

Materials needed:
• milk (use milk with a higher fat content)
• Small plate or saucer
• Food coloring
• Dishwashing liquid

Procedure:
• Pour enough milk in to a saucer to cover the bottom.
• Add 4 to 8 drops of food coloring to the milk, placing the drops on separate areas of the
milk.
• Add 1 drop of liquid dish soap to the saucer and wait for several seconds.

Guide Questions:

1. Describe what happened/ write your observation:

-When I add the drop of liquid dish soap to the food color and milk, in several
seconds, the milk creates movement and the food color spreads it color to the milk. Since I
only use one color, I just see the color turns into a lighter or milky shade.

2. Milk is a mixture that contains water and fat. Is soap attracted to water, fat, or both?
Explain.
-Soap molecules are soluble in water that can dissolve fats, in which, soap has both
non-polar and polar molecule that is capable of distributing one liquid to an immiscible
liquid. One end of soap is hydrophilic which is attracted to water and the other one is
hydrophobic that avoids water which explains its component.

3. Why does the food coloring stay in separate areas of the milk before the soap is added?
(Hint: Think about the old adage “Oil and water don’t mix” and then think about the
chemistry behind that saying.)
-Food color stays in separate areas of milk simply because it doesn’t mix with milk,
fats in milk and water in food coloring are immiscible. Non-polar fat molecules in milk are
attracted to each other while the polar molecule in the water and in milk is pushed away
making the food color to stay in their separate areas.

4. Why does adding soap allow the watery food coloring solution to move around the
saucer?
-Adding the soap smashes the surface tension of the milk and help to react with
the fats. As the soap molecules gathered with the milk fats, these fat molecules are dragged
causing the food color and milk to create movement to the edges because of the polar
molecules of water in milk.

5. Is soap necessary to remove salt (NaCl) from your hands? Explain.

-No, because salt dissolves easily in the water and we can wash it away without
using the soap.

6. Which types of compounds have the strongest intermolecular forces?

-The strongest form of intermolecular force is ionic forces that can be found in
ionic compounds having the highest boiling points and melthing points.

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MCU Basic Education Department FIRST QUARTER SY 2020-2021

7. How can certain physical properties give an indication of the strength of IMFs of
compounds?
-Determining the strong intermolecular forces will also result into a higher
physical properties like melting point, boiling point because it is directly proportional to
the energy required to break its molecules and also related to the strength of forces existing
between molecules. As these physical properties decreases, the attractive forces will also
reduced.

Conclusion: (Write a brief conclusion about your experiment)

In conclusion, the intermolecular forces existing between the molecules can affect the
physical properties of liquids such as evaporation and surface tension. In evaporation process, if
the intermolecular forces are strong then the rate of evaporation will be slow. However, the weak
intermolecular forces will make the rate of evaporation higher, in the evaporative cooling
experiment, the water took longer to evaporate because it has the strong intermolecular forces
than the isopropyl alcohol which evaporated faster as it has a weak intermolecular forces in it.
In surface tension, the strong intermolecular forces of a substance will execute a great
surface tension just like water as it holds its molecules together. Also, the high surface tension of
water will allow materials to float on top of it because of the strong hydrogen bonds that keeps its
water molecules on the surface. Meanwhile, in the runaway pepper and milk rainbow experiment,
it depicts how a bar soap and liquid dish soap breaks the surface tension of the water.

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MCU Basic Education Department FIRST QUARTER SY 2020-2021

Water
Saucer
Alcohol Food
Bar soap Liquid color
Milk
Pepper soap
Small plate

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MCU Basic Education Department FIRST QUARTER SY 2020-2021

The isopropyl alcohol

dries up with my finger
faster than the water, it
Water Alcohol also gives a cooling effect.
After some time, the water
also dries up but the
alcohol is already gone.

The pepper floats on the

water as I sprinkled it.

As I dip the soap on to the center of

water, the pepper moves away from it.

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MCU Basic Education Department FIRST QUARTER SY 2020-2021

I poured the milk and add

the few drops of food color.

This is where I added the

drop of liquid dish soap.

After few seconds…

Food color with milk

Food color with milk and

liquid dish soap.

This is intended for OFFLINE Learning. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution of this is not allowed.
Students will accomplish tasks in handwritten/manual form. Thank you.