Finding the Oxidation State of Fe in a Single Replacement Reaction Between Fe and CuSO 4

Lab Question:
What is the oxidation state of Fe in a single replacement reaction between Fe and CuSO4?

Methods:
First, I placed a weighing boat on an electronic scale, and zeroed the scale. Then, I used a spatula and
measured 0.297 g of Fe into the weighing boat. I took the weighing boat off, and recorded the mass of an
evaporating dish. I then measured 25 mL of CuSO4 with a burette, and transferred it into a 50 mL beaker.
I poured the Fe out of the weighing boat into the beaker with the CuSO4. I stirred the solution with a
glass rod for about 20 minutes while reaction occurred, then poured the solution into the evaporating dish.
I decanted the solution, pouring out the liquid iron sulfate until only the solid copper remained. In order
to dry out the copper, I added two squirts of acetone in my evaporating dish with a barrel pipette, and
decanted the solution again. I repeated the process with acetone three times, before setting the
evaporating dish on a hot plate in the fume hood to let the remaining liquid evaporate. When the copper
in the evaporating dish looked dry, I massed the evaporating dish with Cu in it, and recorded that value.
At the end of the experiment, I had the mass of the initial sample of solid Fe, the mass of the evaporating
dish, and the mass of the evaporating dish with the solid Cu in it after the reaction had occurred.

Results:
As I did not know the oxidation state of Fe I had been working with, there were two possible single
replacement reactions that had occurred, both of which are shown in Calculation 1. The two possibilities
are Fe2+ or Fe3+.

Calculation 1:

Fe2+: Fe (s) + CuSO4 (aq) → Cu (s) +FeSO4 (aq)

Fe3+: 2Fe (s) + 3CuSO4 (aq) → 3Cu (s) +Fe2(SO4)3 (aq)

To find which oxidation state of Fe I had been working with, I needed to compare the masses of the Fe (s)
that I had acquired at the start of the experiment, and the mass of the Cu (s) that I had gotten at the end.
According to the reactions, if they formed a 1:1 ratio, then I would know that I had been working with
Fe2+, as it matches the equation. If they formed a 2:3 ratio of iron to copper, then I would know that I had
been working with Fe3+.

To find the ratio, I needed to find the masses of solid Fe and Cu from the experiment, and convert the two
of them to moles. At the beginning of the experiment, I had measured out 0.297 g of solid Fe, which I
then converted to 0.00532 mol Fe. This is shown in Calculation 2.
Calculation 2:

1 𝑚𝑜𝑙
0.297 𝑔 𝐹𝑒 ( ) = 0.00532 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐹𝑒
55.845 𝑔 𝐹𝑒

To find the number of moles of Cu I had, I had to subtract the mass of the evaporating dish from the mass
of the evaporating dish with the solid Cu in it. I found that I had 0.672 g of Cu. This is shown in
Calculation 3.

Calculation 3:

Mass of evaporating dish: 78.780 g

Mass of evaporating dish with Cu in it: 79.452 g

Mass of Cu = 79.452 g - 78.780 g = 0.672 g Cu

Then, I converted 0.672 g Cu to 0.0106 mol Cu, as shown in Calculation 4.

Calculation 4:

1 𝑚𝑜𝑙
0.672 𝑔 𝐶𝑢 ( ) = 0.0106 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐶𝑢
63.546 𝑔 𝐶𝑢

Then, I was able to compare the number of moles of Fe to Cu by dividing both by the smaller number of
moles. Comparing 0.0106 mol Cu and 0.00532 mol Fe, I could see that 0.00532 mol Fe was smaller.
Therefore, I divided both mole numbers by 0.00532 to find the mole ratio, as shown in Calculation 5.

Calculation 5:

0.00532 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐹𝑒
= 1.00
0.00532
0.0106 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐶𝑢
= 1.99
0.00532

By rounding, I found that my Cu : Fe mole ratio was closest to 2:1. 2:1 is closer to 3:2 than to 1:1, so I
concluded that the reaction that had occurred was 2Fe (s) + 3CuSO4 (aq) → 3Cu (s) +Fe2(SO4)3 (aq), and that
the oxidation state of Fe was 2+.

Answer:

The oxidation state of Fe was 2+.

Conclusion:

My answer is definitely inaccurate, as my calculation yielded a 2:1 ratio, which is not one of the choices.
As the ratios of 3:2 and 1:1 are both closer to 1 than 2:1, the difference between my moles of Fe and Cu is
too high. An error that might have caused my data to be inaccurate is that some Fe might have been left
in the weighing boat while transferring. As Fe is the limiting reactant, losing Fe while transferring would
have caused the Fe to run out faster during the reaction, and so less Cu would have been produced. That
means that the moles of Cu should have been higher, but that does not make sense as that would cause the
difference between the moles of Cu and Fe to be even larger, and my ratio even further from the two
choices. Another error is that Fe got stuck on the sides of the beaker and on the glass stirring rod, so I
might have lost some of the Fe when I transferred the solution to the evaporating dish. This would have
caused the same result, with a lower ratio closer to 3:2. Another error that might have occurred is that the
CuSO4 had not been dried off completely when the acetone was added, which would have caused it to
crystallize. The CuSO4 would have increased the mass of the evaporating dish with Cu in it when I
massed it, so my mole number for Cu might be too high. If it were lower, the ratio would also be lower
and closer to 3:2. This error definitely happened, as there was visible blue crystals mixed in with the Cu
in the evaporating dish when I massed it at the very end, when there was not supposed to be any. Not
having the Cu be completely dry before massing it at the very end of the experiment would have had the
same result of making the mass of Cu too high.