Sea-Salt Lab Report

Introduction:

Humankind has been producing salt since ancient times; as early as

several hundred B.C., ancient civilizations had set up massive mines to pull
the mineral from the ground. It was not long after that the distillation of salt
from sea water began, a practice which has been continued to this day.
The ancient’s infatuation with salt has been explored in depth; it served as
a preservative, medical aide (Aztec warriors would bathe themselves in
brine, believing (correctly) that this caused their wounds to heal more
quickly and cleanly) and condiment. Salt has weathered the ages as a
valuable resource, and is widely consumed to this day (a 2010 study
indicated that the average global consumption for salt was 10 grams per
person per day).
Although there is much concern over people consuming too much
sodium, what must not be forgotten is that salt (specifically the sodium
cation) plays a vital role in the human body. The sodium cation serves as
an electrolyte in the body, carrying electric charge and maintaining the
balance of water between cells. A deficiency in sodium (called
hyponatreamia) can lead to symptoms ranging from a feeling of weakness
to severe vomiting.
The following lab report concerns an experiment done to determine
the percent composition of ocean water. The lab extracts excess materials
from the water sample, then removes the salt from the sample by
evaporating the water. By the end of this lab, we will have determined
approximately how much salt is in a given sample of sea water.

Materials:
1. 1 Glass Erlenmeyer flask
2. 1 Glass beaker
3. 1 Sample sea water
 4. 1 Funnel
5. 1 Filter
6. 1 Ring stand (Filtration apparatus)
7. 1 Hotplate (For evaporation)
8. 1 Scale (Sensitive to 0.1g)

Methods:
1. Measure empty Erlenmeyer flask
2. Collect 30 mg sample sea water in beaker
3. Assemble ring stand, funnel and filter into filter apparatus; place filter
into funnel, place funnel in ring stand, adjust height so Erlenmeyer
flask fits comfortably beneath
4. Pour sea water through assembled filter apparatus, collect in
Erlenmeyer flask
5. Weigh full Erlenmeyer flask; subtract empty flask weight from full
flask to derive mass pure water; subtract mass pure water from mass
unfiltered water to derive mass of filtered substance
6. Place Erlenmeyer flask on hotplate, set to 100 degrees Celsius.
NOTE: DO NOT COVER LID OF FLASK. IT WILL EXPLODE.
7. Allow all sea water to boil away. You will be left with a mess of sea
salt.
8. Measure weight of flask with sea salt; subtract mass of empty flask
from mass of salted flask to derive mass of salt.
9. Find %composition of salt relative to salt water using the following
equation:

Mass salt (g)

-------------------------------
Mass sea water (initial)

Results:
Substance/Object Mass (g)
Erlenmeyer flask (empty) 40.8
Sea water 27.3
Salt 0.6

%Comp: ​Sea salt makes up 2.19% of the mass of sea water. (0.6/27.3 =
0.0219 * 100 = 2.19%). The accepted value for salinity of sea water is
approximately 3.5 percent; therefore, the margin of error is significant, at
(3.5-2.9/3.5)*100 = 40%

Discussion:

This separation lab demonstrates that it is possible to extract sea salt

from ocean water through filtration and evaporation; however, evaporation
by heating causes the budding crystals to become too excited to form
macro-scale crystalline structures. As the lab demonstrated, approx. 2.19%
of the mass of sea water is pure sea salt, although a significant margin of
error exists. This is due to the fact that sea water is not made entirely of
water and salt; there are trace amounts (<1%) of other substances in ocean
water. The margin of error for this experiment was approx. 40%; this may
be attributed to the fact that a significant mass of salt was lost during the
evaporation process as the sample exploded several times near the end of
the lab.