Abby Darnell Determination of an Equilibrium Constant July 6, 2011

Chemistry 188 Summer 2011 - Lab TA: Luke McCormick Introduction: The purpose of this experiment was to measure the equilibrium constant for a reaction involving the complexation of two species. Chemical equilibrium applies to reactions that can occur in both directions and when the net change in the reactants and the products is zero then the reaction has reached equilibrium. Both reactions are still occurring but they are constant and balanced. An equilibrium constant (K) is a number that is equal to the ratio of the equilibrium concentrations of products to the equilibrium concentrations of reactants, each raised to the power of its stoichiometric coefficient. The equilibrium constant is based on the initial concentration of the reaction, and when it changes the constant changes. Experimental: In setting up for the experiment, the spectrophotometer was set up and calibrated. 50.0 mL of KSCN solution were put into a 250 mL beaker. Then 10 mL of Fe(NO3)3 solution were transferred to a clean 25 mL beaker. Portions of 1 mL of Fe(NO3)3 were pipetted into the KSCN solution. After each addition the solution was thoroughly stirred then put into a cuvette. The absorbance was measured at 445 nm then the contents of the cuvette were returned to the parent solution. Ten subsequent 1 mL additions were performed and the absorbance was recorded for each. This whole procedure was performed three times. Once all three trials were complete, the calculations to find the equilibrium constant were done.

Results:
Fe(NO3)3 added mL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 KSCN added 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL 50 mL Total Volume 50 mL 51 mL 52 mL 53 mL 54 mL 55 mL 56 mL 57 mL 58 mL 59 mL 60 mL Bound & Free SCN6.0e-6 1.18e-7 1.15e-7 1.13e-7 1.11e-7 1.09e-7 1.07e-7 1.05e-7 1.03e-7 1.02e-7 1.0e-7 Free Fe3+ 0 1.96e-6 1.92e-6 1.89e-6 1.85e-6 1.82e-6 1.79e-6 1.75e-6 1.72e-6 1.69e-6 1.67e-6 Trial 1 Absorbance 0 0.066 0.192 0.260 0.260 0.307 0.223 0.326 0.305 0.282 0.246 Trial 2 Absorbance 0 0.043 0.179 0.217 0.306 0.388 0.459 0.554 0.603 0.629 0.688 Trial 3 Absorbance 0 0.098 0.195 0.392 0.395 0.421 0.543 0.584 0.618 0.639 0.691

450000 400000 350000 413000 375000 355000 325000 280000 222000 190000 161000 97400 36000 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 Average Absorbance (445 nm) 0.8 Series1 Linear (Series1)

Average A/Fe3+

300000 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000 0 -50000 0

y=mx+b

Discussion: The chemical reaction that was studied in this experiment was: Fe3+ (aq) + SCN- (aq) FeSCN2+ (aq) The strategy to find the equilibrium constant in this experiment was to do three trials of adding Fe(NO3)3 to KSCN, 1 mL at a time to create a graph and find the slope of that graph. Using the slope, the equilibrium of the reaction can be determined. When adding the Fe(NO3)3 to the KSCN the color of the solution becomes more intense which shows that the concentration is getting higher. The average of the trials are the variables chosen to plot because they provide the most accurate data and results of the experiment. The plot of the variables is used to determine Kc by the slope and the equation: ( )( ) [ ]

Rearranging the equation gives the result of the equilibrium constant which is what is needed. The results in trials two and three are what was expected but the results for trial one were not expected. In trial one as the concentration increased the absorbance did not increase each time. For this reason trial one had to be thrown out so that the rest of the results would come out as expected. Trial one is also a source of error this trial being thrown out caused less data to work with and more room for inaccuracy. The cause of trial ones inconsistency could have been because incorrect amounts were added to the solution or because something was off with the spectrophotometer. The impact of this error if it had gone unnoticed would have been that our data was incorrect, which would have given an incorrect equilibrium constant.