Investigating Chemical Equilibrium Lab

Chem 12 – Riley Tinkl

Purpose
To observe the changes in the macroscopic properties of chemical systems in equilibrium
as stresses are applied, such as change in temperature.

Hypothesis
If we change the concentration of acids and bases, then the thymol blue will change its
colour depending on the presence of H+ ions because of the particle collision theory.

The more H+ ions present, the more the reaction will shift right (forwards), producing the
colour red (signalling the presence of thymol blueH2).

Lab Variables
Independent:
• The concentration of acids and bases through addition and dilution.

Dependent:
• The colours of solutions.

Materials/Equipment
• Spot well plate • Beaker tongs

• Hot plate (in fume hood) • Iron Ring Stand (for hot materials)

• Graduated cylinders (10-25mL) • Safety goggles

• 2 Beakers (100mL) • Lab coat

• Lab coat • Fume hood (for part III)

• Full face shield • Dispenser for H2O

• Dispenser for 6.0M HCL • Several eye droppers

Reagents
• 0.1M HCL • 0.2M Fe(NO3)3 • 0.1M NaOH • CoCl2ꞏ6H2O
• 0.2M FeCl3 • 6.0M HCl • 0.2M KSCN • 0.04% thymol blue
• 0.2M KCL • 6.0M NaOH • Distilled water • 0.1M K2Cr2O7
• 0.1M K2CrO4 • 1.0M HCl • 0.1M Ba(NO3)2

Point form Procedure

1. Wear lab coats and safety goggles

Part I – Thymol Blue equilibrium

1. Grab a clean, empty spot well plate, and add ~5 drops of water and 1 drop of thymol
blue. Mix the well using the eye dropper you used to grab the thymol blue. Record the
colour of this first well’s solution in the observations table. This will be the “master
well”.

2. Using the equilibrium equation for thymol blue (given on the lab sheet), determine
where the equilibrium is currently established.

3. From the “master well”, place two drops (each) into two new wells, labelling them 1 & 2.
The second well will act as a control (leave as is).

4. To well 1, add drops of the 0.1M HCl until a colour change is observed. Record the
amount of drops, and colour in the observations table. Indicate with an arrow which
direction the reaction shifted.

5. Determine if additional HCl can be added. If red, swap to the 0.1M NaOH and record
the amount of drops until a colour change is observable.

◦ If not red, continue adding HCl (drop-by-drop) until it is red, recording the
additional drops in the previous table entry, then swap to the 0.1M NaOH.

◦ Compare with the control well (2), and record the chemical used, the colour change,
drops used and the shift direction.

6. Still within well 1, drop-by-drop add the 0.1M NaOH until blue is obtained (if it isn't
already), recording the drops used.

A) Then, drop-by-drop, add the 0.1M HCl to obtain the middle colour again, recording
the colour change and the amount of drops used.

Once everything is recorded, clean the wells and proceed to the next experiment.
Part II – Equilibrium involving Thiocyanatoiron (III) Ions
1. Label two wells “1” and “2”. Within well 1, place one drop of the 0.2M FeCl3, and within
well 2, one drop of the 0.2M KSCN. Record the colours of the solutions near the table.

2. Place one drop of the 0.2M KSCN into well 1, recording the colour of the new solution
near the table. Add water to the mixture until the well is almost full, and mix with the
eyedropper. The solution should be coloured a light amber.

◦ If not correctly coloured, take three drops of the solution from well 1, and place
them in a separate well and dilute until the desired colour is reached.

3. Into 5 separate wells, labelled “A,B,C,D,E”, separately add two drops of the diluted light
amber solution into each well.

◦ To each of the following steps, record the results into table II. Record the reagent
added, stress applied, colour observed, and the shift in equilibrium.

A) To the first well (well A), add 3 drops of water. This is a dilution, not a reaction,
and will serve as a control. No directional shift will occur.

B) To well B, add 3 drops of 0.2M KCl, record the results.

C) To well C, add 3 drops of 0.2M Fe(NO3)3, record the results.

D) To well D, add 3 drops of 0.2M KSCN, record the results.

E) To well E, add 3 drops of 6.0M NaOH, record the results.

Part III – Equilibrium Involving Cobalt(II) Complexes
1. Place one ~0.2g of CoCl2*6H2O (pea-sized samples) into two separate 100mL beakers,
labelling them “HCl” and “H2O” respectively.

2. Using a 50mL graduated cylinder, grab 10mL of distilled water and pour it into the
container marked H2O. Make note of the colour.

◦ This is the first of two controls, you should be able to figure out which of the two
cobalt complexes would be represented by this colour.

3. Using a 50mL graduated cylinder, grab 10mL if 6.0M HCl. Avoid skin contact as this is a
very corrosive acid. Pour the HCl into the beaker labelled HCl, and record the colour.

◦ This is the second of two controls, and you should be able to tell which cobalt
complex has this colour.

4. Gradually add distilled water to the HCl solution until a definite colour change is
observed (light pink). This addition of water allows for us to observe a reaction, and
prevent the solution from boiling dry. Record observations in table III.

5. Go to the fume hood, and place the HCl beaker onto a pre-heated hot plate. When a
definite colour change is observed, remove the beaker from the hot plate using tongs
and place it into a larger beaker to carry back to your lab table. Place the hot beaker
onto a ring stand, and record the observed colour change.

◦ Be sure to not accidentally allow the HCl to boil dry.

6. To a new 250mL beaker, add 50mL of cold water to create a cold water bath for our hot
HCl beaker. Carefully place the HCl beaker upright into the water bath, ensuring not to
spill any HCl into the water. Record any colour change.
Observations
The tables below, when mentioning steps refer to the steps within my PFP, not the lab’s
directions simply for ease of writing.

Part I
Reagent added Stress (Ion Colour Drops used Equilibrium
Added) Observation Shift Direction

HCl (Step 4) H Crimson/Pink 1 ⇒

NaOH (Step 5) OH Peach 7 ⇐
NaOH (Step 6) OH Blue 4 ⇐
HCl (Step 6A) H Greenish-Yellow 1 ⇒

Part II
Fe3+: (Faint Yellow) + SCN-: (Orange) ⇐⇒ FeSCN 2+
(Red)

Reagent added Stress (Ion Added) Colour Observation Equilibrium Shift

Direction

H2O (A) Control, no stress Light Amber N/A

KCl (B) Cl Light Amber N/A

Fe(NO3)3 (C) Fe Crimson ⇒

KSCN (D) SCN Crimson ⇒
NaOH (E) OH Faint Yellow ⇐
Part III
Step Stress Colour Observation Equilibrium Shift
Direction

2 “Control 1“ H2O Light Pink ⇐

3 “Control 2” Cl- Blue ⇒
4 H2O Light Pink ⇐
5 Heat Deep Blue ⇒
6 Chill Pink ⇐
Question Responses
1. By doubling the concentration of the NaOH solution, from 0.1M to 0.2M you effectively
double the amount of NaOH molecules present in the solution. Using the higher
concentration solution would halve the amount of drops required for an observable
colour change.

2. This could be due to the natural colouration of the ions before they’re added to other
solutions. Because the two mix, the colours appear to change whilst no reaction takes
place – think: when adding food dye to water, the food dye simply is dispersed
throughout the water; no reaction takes place.

3. When drastically increasing the presence of NaOH with a 6.0M solution, it seemingly
diluted the equilibrium. It then had a similar reaction that would occur when
increasing the volume of gasses, in that it caused a shift left to produce more
reactants. Therefore, by increasing the space between the products and reactants,
more reactants were created to fill this newfound empty space.

4. I’d say the compound would turn pink, as when we did step 6 in part III, when the
Co(H2O)4Cl2(aq) was chilled with cold water, the deep blue solution turned pink.

5. I’d say that the reaction is endothermic, as stated in question 4: when the solution is
chilled, it turns pink, the colour of the reactants. Therefore, when heat is added, it
would combine with the reactants to produce the blue complex, a sign of an
endothermic reaction.

6. If the NaCl were to be aqueous, we can split it into two ions, Na+ and Cl-. Since we
would be adding NaCl, we would in turn be increasing the presence of Cl- within the
 equilibrium. This imbalance would cause the equilibrium to shift right to produce more
products, and balance out the reactants.

7. Omit (We didn’t do this part of the lab).

Follow-up Question (1)

LaTeX

Conclusion
Within Part I, we observed that the addition of acids would cause the equilibrium to shift
right, and the addition of bases would cause the equilibrium to shift to the left. This makes
sense, as when we add acids, it causes an imbalance on the reactants side, which would
cause a shift to the right (the products side), producing the warmer colours which absorb the
H+ ions.

• This supports my hypothesis at the start of the write-up, as acids did indeed cause a
shift to the right, which would favour the creation of thymol blueH2, the red complex.

Within Part II, we observed the effects of dilution, the additions of products and reactants,
and the addition of a base. We also found that there are certain elements (Potassium as an
example) which are placeholders, and have no effect on the equilibrium, such as KCl and
KSCN both having differing results when added. The KCl has no reaction, while the KSCN
caused a shift to the right, meaning that only the SCN was actually used within the reaction,
whilst the potassium was left behind. We had also found that the addition of a base caused a
shift left (towards the reactants) due to increasing the volume of the solution. Therefore, we
can discern that acids and bases likely would have no greater effect on the reaction than a
simple molecule such as water.

Within Part III, we found the effects of adding reactants/products and temperature changes
on the equilibrium. In line with Le Chatalier’s Principle, adding reactants (Cl) caused a shift to
the right, and adding products (H2O) caused a shift to the left, shown by the observed colour
change. However, through this experiment we discovered that the reaction is endothermic by
applying heat to the equilibrium. We found this through colour change, as when heated, the
complex would turn blue, signifying a shift towards the products; heat was absorbed.
Potential sources of experimental error
One major source of experimental error (or more so in documentation) is that we didn’t
document additional properties of reactions outside the required tables. This could have led
to incorrect assumptions made within the lab write-up.

Another potential source of experimental error would be the concentration of the provided
solutions. Some of them had been created upwards of several years ago, which could have
potentially allowed a degradation in quality/accuracy of molarity. This could potentially give
our group differing results compared to others based on the supposedly similar solutions
used by the other groups.

• For example, the 6.0M NaOH had precipitates throughout the lid and the container,
likely from reacting with the carbon dioxide in the air (CO2, when combined with water
creates an acid). This reduces the strength of the base by an unknown amount, which
is terrible for precision.