Time, temperature, mass & volume

Measuring Time

• Time can be measured using a stopwatch or stopclock which are

usually accurate to one or two decimal places

• The units of time normally used are seconds or minutes

• Remember: 1 minute = 60 seconds

Measuring Temperature

Temperature is measured with a thermometer or digital temperature probe

Laboratory thermometers usually have a precision of a half or one degree
Digital temperature probes are available which are more precise than
traditional thermometers and can often read to 0.1 oC

The units of temperature are degrees Celsius (ºC)

Measuring Mass
Mass is measured using a digital balance which normally gives readings to two
decimal places

The standard unit of mass in kilograms (kg)

However, in chemistry grams (g) are most often used

Remember: 1 kilogram = 1000 grams

Measuring Volumes of liquid

Three common pieces of apparatus for measuring the volume of a liquid are:
Burettes
Volumetric pipettes
Measuring cylinders
 Burettes are the most accurate way of measuring a variable volume of liquid
between 0 cm3 and 50 cm3
They are most commonly used in titrations
Careful: Read the burette scale from top to bottom as 0.00 cm3 is at the top
of the column

Volumetric pipettes are the most accurate way of measuring a fixed volume of
liquid,
They have a scratch mark on the neck which is matched to the bottom of the
meniscus to make the measurement
A pipette filler is used to draw the liquid into the volumetric pipette
The most common volumes for volumetric pipettes are 10 cm3 and 25 cm3

Whichever apparatus you use, you may see markings in millilitres, ml, which are
the same as a cm3
 Measuring Volumes of gas
This is typically done by using one of the following methods:
• Using a gas syringe
• By downward displacement of water
A gas syringe is more precise and accurate than downward displacement
of water
Downward displacement of water is where a measuring cylinder is inverted in
water to collect the gas produced
This method does not work if the gas is soluble in water
Advantages & disadvantages of methods & apparatus
Planning your method
Good experimental design includes the answers to questions like
Have I chosen a suitable apparatus for what I need to measure?
Is it going to give me results in an appropriate time frame?
Is it going to give me enough results to process, analyse and make
conclusions?
Does it allow for repetitions to check how reliable my results are?
Does my plan give a suitable range of results?
How can I be sure my results are accurate?
Have I chosen an appropriate scale of quantities without being wasteful
or unsafe?
You may be asked about experimental methods in exam questions and
your experience and knowledge of practical techniques in chemistry should
help you to spot mistakes and suggest improvements
 Acid-base titrations

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• Titrations are a method of analysing the concentration of solutions

• They can determine exactly how much alkali is needed to neutralise a

quantity of acid – and vice versa

• You may be asked to perform titration calculations to determine

the moles present in a given amount or
the concentration / volume required to neutralise an acid or a base

• Titrations can also be used to prepare salts

Method

• Use the pipette and pipette filler and place exactly 25 cm3 sodium hydroxide

solution into the conical flask

• Using the funnel, fill the burette with hydrochloric acid placing an empty beaker

underneath the tap. Run a small portion of acid through the burette to remove

any air bubbles

• Record the starting point on the burette to the nearest 0.05 cm3

• Place the conical flask on a white tile so the tip of the burette is inside the flask

• Add a few drops of a suitable indicator to the solution in the conical flask
• Perform a rough titration by taking the burette reading and running in the
solution in 1 – 3 cm3 portions, while swirling the flask vigorously
• Quickly close the tap when the end-point is reached
• The endpoint is when one drop causes a sharp colour change
• Record the volume of hydrochloric acid added, in a suitable results table as
shown below
• Make sure your eye is level with the meniscus
• Repeat the titration with a fresh batch of sodium hydroxide
• As the rough end-point volume is approached, add the solution from the
burette one drop at a time until the indicator just changes colour
• Record the volume to the nearest 0.05 cm3
• Repeat until you achieve two concordant results (two results that are within
0.1 cm3 of each other) to increase accuracy
Indicators
Indicators are used to show the endpoint in a titration
Wide range indicators such as litmus are not suitable for titration as they do
not give a sharp colour change at the endpoint
However, methyl orange and phenolphthalein are very suitable
Some of the most common indicators with their corresponding colours are
shown below:
 Separation & Purification Techniques

Separating a mixture of solids

Differences in solubility can be used to separate solids

For a difference in solubility, a suitable solvent must be carefully chosen

Only the desired substance should dissolve in the solvent

Other substances or impurities in the mixture should not dissolve in the

solvent

For example, to separate a mixture of sand and salt:

Water is a suitable solvent because salt is soluble in water, but sand is

insoluble in water
Filtration
This technique is used to separate an undissolved solid from a mixture of
the solid and a liquid / solution ( e.g. sand from a mixture of sand and water)

Centrifugation can also be used for this mixture

A filter paper is placed in a filter funnel above another beaker

mixture of insoluble solid and liquid is poured into the filter funnel

The filter paper will only allow small liquid particles to pass through in the
filtrate

Solid particles are too large to pass through the filter paper so will stay
behind as a residue
Crystallisation
This method is used to separate a dissolved solid from a solution

A simple application of this is to heat a solution to boiling, remove the heat

and leave the solvent to evaporate

A more common application of this is sometimes called crystallisation

This is when the solid is more soluble in hot solvent than in cold, e.g. copper
sulphate from a solution of copper(II) sulphate

The solution is heated, allowing the solvent to evaporate and leaving a saturated
solution behind
You can test if the solution is saturated by dipping a clean, dry, cold glass rod into
the solution

If the solution is saturated, crystals will form on the glass rod when it is
removed and allowed to cool
The saturated solution is allowed to cool slowly

Solids will come out of the solution as the solubility decreases

This will be seen as crystals growing

The crystals are collected by filtration

They are then washed with distilled water to remove any impurities

Finally, they are allowed to dry

Common places to dry crystals are between sheets of filter paper or in a

drying oven
Distillation: simple & fractional

Simple distillation

Distillation is used to separate a liquid and soluble solid from a solution (e.g.
water from a solution of saltwater) or a pure liquid from a mixture of liquids

The solution is heated and pure water evaporates producing a vapour which
rises through the neck of the round-bottomed flask

The vapour passes through the condenser, where it cools and condenses,
turning into pure water which is collected in a beaker

After all the water is evaporated from the solution, only the solid solute will be
left behind
Simple distillation can be used to separate the products of fermentation, such as
alcohol and water
However, fractional distillation is a more effective separation technique, commonly
used when the boiling points of the liquids are close and/or a higher degree of
purity is required, such as crude oil

Fractional distillation

Used to separate two or more liquids that are miscible with one another (e.g.
ethanol and water from a mixture of the two)

The solution is heated to the temperature of the substance with

the lowest boiling point

This substance will rise and evaporate first

vapours will pass through a condenser, where they cool and condense

The condensed liquid is then collected in a beaker

All of the substance is evaporated and collected, leaving behind the other
component(s) of the mixture
For water and ethanol:
Ethanol has a boiling point of 78 ºC

Water has a boiling point of of 100 ºC

The mixture is heated until it reaches 78 ºC, at which point the ethanol
distills out of the mixture and into the beaker

When the temperature starts to increase to 100 ºC heating should be

stopped as the water and ethanol are now separated
An electric heater is safer to use when there are flammable liquids present

The separation of the components in petroleum is achieved by fractional

distillation on an industrial scale
Assessing purity
Pure substances melt and boil at specific and sharp temperatures

For example, water has a boiling point of 100°C and a melting point of 0°C

Mixtures have a range of melting and boiling points as they consist of different
substances that melt or boil at different temperatures
Therefore, melting and boiling point data can be used to distinguish pure
substances from mixtures

An unknown pure substance can be identified by experimentally determining its

melting point and boiling point and comparing them to literature values / data
tables

Boiling points are commonly determined by distillation

Melting point analysis is routinely used to assess the purity of drugs for example

This is done using a melting point apparatus which allows you to slowly heat
up a small amount of the sample, making it easier to observe the exact
melting point
This is then compared to data
tables

The closer the measured value

is to the actual melting or
boiling point, the purer the
sample is
If the sample contains
impurities:

The boiling point may

appear higher than the
sample's actual boiling
point
The melting point may
appear lower than the
sample's actual melting
point