Limiting Reactants:

Copper(II)Sulfate and Iron

Title, Authors, Affiliation: Makayla Boyd, Justin Moore, and Medina Muhammad
Abstract:
The purpose of this was to strengthen our ability in the following content areas: The 4 following
theoretical yields, balancing equations, types of reactions, limiting reactants, and stoichiometry
calculations. We combined copper(II) Sulfate with iron and produced Iron(III)Sulfate plus copper.
the theoretical yield of Iron Sulfate was 0.3 grams while our actual yield was 0.93g. The percent
yield of our substance was 310% this was due to the fact that we had other substances that we
couldn't separate. It was concluded that the experiment resulted in a single displacement
chemical reaction with a limiting reactant of Iron.
Introduction:
In this lab we are going to mix copper, sulfate solution, and iron metal together. we will
evaluate the reaction to find the limiting reactant,theoretical yield,the type of reaction and the
substance that is formed.Some sort of reaction will occur that we must make an hypothesis
about. First we have to separate the solid form the liquid and then filter it. Hypothesis - We
predict that the iron will go through a chemical change when it reacts with the copper sulfate
creating a new substance.Since there are only 3 elements or compounds involved in the
reaction we hypothesize that this will be a single-displacement reaction.
.The reactant sulfate is a sulfur and oxygen compound. It can be used as a salt in certain
foods. It can also be found in some freshwater and shampoos. Copper is another reactant
being used. It can conduct electricity and heat. Copper is used to make pipes, pennies, and
some technologies. Iron metal is the final reactant. Iron can be used to make machines, cars,
equipment, and more. It is a strong metal and can even be found in the human body.
Data:
Grams of copper(II)Sulfate:
M=Molarity=moles of solute/liters of solution
0.5 M= mols/10 Liters of copper(II)sulfate
mols=0.500 x 10L
10L= 0.01 mL
0.500M x 0.01L=0.005 moles of CuSO4 ; mass of CuSO4= 159.62g
159.62gx0.500 mols=79.81g CuSO4
mass of Filter paper: 0.72g

Required mass of iron filings:1.0g

Actual mass:1.02g
Observation of filtered precipitate:
Before
The iron was black
Iron sunk to the bottom
Liquid was blue

After
A reddish color substance was formed
Substances floated to the top
Liquid stayed the color blue

Results:
Key
* is a multiplication sign.
/ is a division sign
is a results in sign
Mass of solid: 1.65g-0.72=0.93g
Balanced chemical formula: 2Fe (s) +3CuSO4 (l)
Fe2(SO4)3 +3Cu
Limiting reactant: 1.02 mass of iron we got. /55.85g Fe =0.018 mol Fe
Theoretical yield: 0.005 mol Cu / 3CuSO4* 3Cu * 63.55 mol Cu= 0.3g
Percent yield: 0.93g / 0.3g * 100 = 310%
Reaction type: Single Displacement.

Discussion:
The reaction of the copper (II) sulfate and iron was appraised to find the products and what the
specific reaction what be from our observations. We also found the quantity of the theoretical
yield from the product. In this experiment we took a graduated cylinder and pipet and measured
10.0 ml of copper (II) sulfate. We put our 10.0 ml of copper (II) sulfate into a 50 ml beaker and
performed our quantity calculations. We had to find the mass of the copper (II) sulfate solution,
so we used the molarity (concentration) formula. The formula:
Molarity= moles of solute/liters of solution.

The solution has a molarity of 0.500 M. With that we calculated the moles and converted them
from moles to grams of the copper (II) sulfate solution.
We used a limited amount of tools in this lab. The eleven tools include Copper (II) sulfate, 10 ml
graduated cylinder, balance, iron, a disposable pipet, a ring pipet, 50 ml beaker, a wash bottle,
an Erlenmeyer flask, a filter paper, and a funnel. Our hypothesis was incorrect in that the copper
will go through a chemical change when it reacts with sulfate solution and turns to copper
sulfate.We actually found that Iron is the limiting reactant and that it became iron sulfate and
copper and gave us a percent yield of 310%. The reason behind the higher number is because
the was both iron and copper in the equation for the calculations that were left. Our conclusion
is that this was a single displacement reaction.
Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank our wonderful teacher Mrs. Galster who helped us create and produce a
final product of this lab. We would also like to thank each other. (Justin Moore, Medina
Muhammad and Makayla Boyd) We all worked efficiently on the lab together to get a great lab
report. Finally, we would like to thank our special guests that have come to listen and watch our
presentations. We greatly appreciate you all.