DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

MSU ILIGAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

ILIGAN CITY

Name: ________________________________ Date Performed: ________________________

Partner: ________________________________ Date Submitted: ________________________

Subject and Section: ______________________

ACTIVITY NO. __

__________________________________________

I. Introduction (10%) _____________________

II. Experimental (5%) _____________________

III. Data and Calculations (70%) _____________________

IV. Results and Discussion (15%) _____________________

V. Conclusion and References _____________________

I. Introduction

When given an unknown material such as a metal, there are some ways to
determine what it is. One way is to measure its density at a given temperature and pressure.
Density is a ratio of mass to volume. It is a basic property of a substance and does not vary
with the size of the sample. Its value is constant and unique on each different substance.
Hence, it is an intensive property, despite having mass and volume as extensive properties.

In this laboratory, an unknown pure metal is used to identify its density. The density is
measured by getting the mass of the unknown metal and its volume is measured by
determining the water displacement when metal is submerged in the water inside a
pycnometer. Because no two metals have the same density, knowing the density of an
object can be a valuable tool in determining the make-up of a sample of unknown material.
The density calculated will then be compared to the table of densities of pure metals from
the instructor to identify the metal.

II. Experimental

A clean dry pycnometer was obtained and rinsed with 1-mL portions of acetone. The
acetone used was being preserved. The dry, empty pycnometer including its cover was
weighed and weight was recorded. A dry and unknown sample of pure metal was obtained
from the instructor and was placed in a pycnometer to fill 1/3 with it. The pycnometer with
metal was filled with distilled water, just enough to submerge the metal. Without the capillary
top, the pycnometer was immersed in a beaker of distilled water. The beaker was heated
gently up to 50 C and was occasionally shook during the heating to eliminate trapped air in
the water inside the pycnometer. When 50 C was reached, the pycnometer was removed
and was equilibrated to 20 C in an ice-water bath for 15 minutes. The capillary top was
inserted when temperature reached 20 C. The pycnometer with the water and metal was
weighed. The volume of water contained in the pycnometer was calculated, thus, getting the
volume occupied by the metal.

Two more trials were carried out to achieve near to true values and accurate results, with the
same procedure done above. The average density of the metal was calculated.
 III. Data and Conclusions

Table 1. Measured mass of pycnometers and added substances and calculated densities

Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

Mass of empty pycnometer 24.9009 30.9309 21.4207

Mass of empty pycnometer+metal 38.2831 44.3257 34.5916

Mass of empty pycnometer+metal+water 61.3852 67.3855 83.3882

Mass of pycnometer filled with water 49.8232 55.7702 72.0319

Mass of metal 13.3822 13.3948 13.1709

Density (g-cm^-3) 7.339 7.861 7.245

Average density 7.482