[Chemical Engineering

Laboratory4]

SEGi University
EXPERIMENT 2: ACIDIC REACTIONS OF ETHANOIC ACID

Candidate’s name: Mark Iordye

Student ID: SCM-031550

Group member’s name: 1: Aseel Alisaeed

2: Gurpreet Kaur

3: Lau Ka Hin

5: Tee Hoe Chun

6: Yousif Abughoush

7: S. vasanthasegaran

Lecturer/ supervisor: MS. Nazlina

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

 Date of submission: 12/10/2015

Abstract:
The objective we set to achieve in this experiment is to identify acidic reaction of ethanoic
acid.in this experiment we are meant to make ethanoic acid and hydrochloric acid to base
form. This process was carried out by us testing the ethanoic acid with full range universal
indicator solution, magnesium, sodium hydroxide solution, and sodium carbonate solution.
But we added some extension which was copper carbonate. And then we compare the
equation with the same solution but with hydrochloric acid. And with this test it shows us that
ethanoic acid is a week acid. And in this experiment when the ethanoic acid was been reacted
with both sodium carbonate (7 drops was been added) and sodium hydrochloride (6 drops
was been added) the colour changed from peach orange to greenish and so as to the
hydrochloric acid its colour changed from orange to greenish for both (6 drops were added
for sodium carbonate and 10 drops for the sodium hydrochloride). But as for the reaction with
magnesium ribbon the two did not have exactly the same reaction and the time it took was
different from each other. For the ethanoic acid it took 46mins 25sec and for the HCl it took
36mins 31sec that’s a difference of 10mins all together so in this experiment it really proved
our point that ethanoic acid is a weak acid. And with the reaction with solid copper carbonate
the ethanoic acid changed from peach orange to blue and for HCl from orange to green. But
at the end we proved that ethanoic acid is a weak acid

Introduction:
Ethanoic acids are also known as acetic acid, it is an organic acid. It can also be
represented as CH3COOH, and the functional group is carboxylic acid.

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

 It is a monocarboxylic acid because it contains only one of the “COOH” group. Its taste is
sure and has a pungent smell. Some of its properties are:-

 The acidic character

 When it is been dissolved in H2O ethanoic acid (acetic acid), (H+) ion because of
the release of a proton.

 It turns blue litmus paper red. That’s to show it’s an acidic character but it is also
a weak acid because it cannot dissociate in an aqueous solution (e.g. water).
 It reacts with sodium bicarbonate.
 It reacts with sodium bicarbonate to produce the end result which is carbon
dioxide.

Some of the common industrial use of carbon are:-

 It is used as a coagulant during the manufacturing of rubber

 It is also used in the manufacturing of dye materials and perfumes
 And also in the manufacturing of rayon fibre and as a solvent

In this experiment the hydrochloric acid showed pH = 1, and the ethanoic acid
showed pH = 3. Only a few drops sodium carbonate solution and sodium
hydroxide solution was needed to neutralize the acids, the alkaline solutions were
eight times more concentrated than the acids. The hydrochloric acid were fizzing
strongly with the carbonate solution. And for the ethanoic acid the fizziness was
noticeable but was not as vigorous as the hydrochloric acid (HCl).

The hydrochloric acid (HCl) was fizzing with the magnesium and hydrogen was
given off (if we would have exposed the hydrogen gas to flame, we were meant to

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

 hear a squeaky pop like sound). But hydrogen was been given off more slowly
with ethanoic acid.

But of the acids were fizzing with the copper carbonate, but the reaction with
hydrochloric acid (HCl) was more vigorous (when the excess copper settled in the
solution it produce copper chloride and the colour was green). But in the ethanoic
acid the fizzing was less not vigorous but could be seen (with the product the
copper ethanoate the colour was blue). Please refer to appendix.

Ethanoic acid is a week acid. As said earlier it cannot dissociate into ions in
water.

CH3COOH H+ + CH3COO
Because hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a strong acid so it dissolves fully

HCl H+ + Cl

With the aid of the equations shown above we saw that the concentration of H + ions in
0.4M HCl is higher than that of 0.4M of ethanoic acid, so its pH was lower and its acid
reaction was faster. When alkalis were added, however, the ethanoic acid equilibrium
positions moved to the right and so eventually all the acid reacted as shown in the equation
on the next page:

NaOH + HCl NaCl + H2O

NaOH + CH3COOH CH3COONa + H2O

Na2CO3 + 2HCl 2NaCl + CO2 + H2O

Na2CO3 + 2CH3COOH 2CH3COONa + CO2 + H2O

Mg + 2HCl MgCl2 + H2

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

 Mg + 2CH3COOH (CH3COO)2 Mg + H2

CuCO3 + 2HCl CuCl2 + CO2 + H2O

CuCO3 + 2CH3COOH (CH3COO)2 Cu + CO2 + H2O

Methodology:
Apparatus:-
 Test tube rack
 8 test tubes
 Beakers
 Glass rod
 Universal indicator pH
 Spatula
 Filter paper

Chemicals:-
 Magnesium ribbon, two 1cm strips
 Ethanoic acid solution, 0.05M, 15ml
 Hydrochloric acid solution, 0.05M, 15ml
 Sodium hydroxide solution, 0.4M, 5ml
 Sodium carbonate solution, 0.4M, 5ml
 Copper carbonate, 0.5g

Caution:
In this experiment we are working with hydrochloric acid (HCl) and some other acid that are
harmful if come in contact with the human body or the eyes. Some of the precautions we
are meant to take are:-

 We made sure we were always putting on our lab coat with full cover shoes
and hand gloves. And most important of all, in this experiment we are
required to put on safety goggles (because it has to do with mostly corrosive
acids and we have to be swirling the solution a lot so it advisable to wear
goggles at all times).
Prepared by
 mark
Weiordye
had to measure the chemicals carefully in other not to SCM-031550
pass the given
mass point.
 1.

Procedure:
Note: we had about 6 lab works to do and the stipulated time so we had to divide our
group into three persons per experiment in other to reach the given time.

 First we placed a test tube rack which contained six test tubes.
 Then we added 2cm depth of ethanoic acid solution (0.05M) into three of the test
tubes we placed.
 And in the remaining three test tube we added the same 2cm depth of hydrochloric
acid (HCl) 0.05M.
 Then we added three drops of full range universal indicator solution to one of the
ethanoic acid tubes and we noted the pH.
 And for the hydrochloric acid we also added three drops of full range universal
indicator solution to one of the tubes and we also observed the pH.
 Then we placed about 0.5cm in depth of sodium carbonate (0.4M) solution in a
small beaker.
 And then we were using the pipette to add one drop of sodium carbonate solution
to the ethanoic acid tube containing the indicator and we stirred the solution with a
glass rod and we observed carefully and noticed the change in colour and we
continued to add it until it pH turned to neutral. And then we counted the number
of drops of the sodium carbonate we used.
 And then we repeated the same procedure but this time we added the sodium
carbonate to the tube containing the hydrochloric acid (HCl) and indicator (so
when we were done we took record of our experiment and we moved on to the
next).
 And for the second experiment of both the ethanoic acid and the hydrochloric acid
we added hydroxide solution (0.4M) to the both of them (we did it by following

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

 the process we followed in our first experiment. That is by following the steps but
this time it is sodium carbonate instead of sodium hydroxide (one of the most
essential thing we learnt about the second experiment is that it takes time for some
reaction to occur. And because we did now that at first, we redid the second
experiment thrice. It was the second that we observed and got it right).
 And for the third experiment we added a small piece of magnesium ribbon to the
remaining hydrochloric acid tube. And then we tried to identify the gas it was
emitting
 And then we repeated the same process with the magnesium ribbon but this this
time we put it in the ethanoic acid tube. Then we compared the rate of reaction to
that of the hydrochloric acid solution.
 Then we took a small amount of solid copper carbonate on a filter paper.
 And poured a 1cm depth of hydrochloric acid and ethanoic acid into other two
different test tubes respectively.
 And lastly we added the copper carbonate to both of the tubes in very small
quantities, while stirring with a glass rod until nothing else happened. And then we
observed the reaction and took records.

Results:
Ethanoic acid
pH = 3

Colour after universal indicator is added = peach orange

Observation NO of Time taken for Observation of colour

after a drop is drops used reaction to change
added until pH is complete
natural

Reaction with Colour remain

sodium peach orange 7 _ Greenish
carbonate(NA2CO3)

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

Reaction with Colour remain
sodium peach orange 6 _ Greenish
hydroxide(NaOH)

Reaction with
magnesium ribbon _ _ 46mins 25sec __

Reaction with solid

copper carbonate _ _ _ Blue

Hydrochloric acid (HCl)

pH = 1
Colour = orange

Observation NO of Time taken for Observation

after a drop is drops used reaction to
added until pH is complete
natural

Reaction with Colour doesn’t

sodium change 6 _ Greenish
carbonate(NA2CO3)

Reaction with Colour doesn’t

sodium change 10 _ Greenish
hydroxide(NaOH)

Reaction with  Hot air escaped

magnesium ribbon _ when reaction

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

 _ 46mins 25sec started
 It had a strong
pungent smell
and the colour
blue

Reaction with solid Colour change to

copper carbonate _ _ _ green
Air bubbles were
present

Discussion:
The reason we carried out this experiment was to identify the acidity of ethanoic acid, and
leave our end result in a neutral state. One of the things I observed was that the apart from our
indicator the rest of our chemicals were all colour less and while been mixed with the
indicator the colour was peach orange for the ethanoic acid and orange for hydrochloric acid.
But after been mixed with drops of sodium carbonate in the ethanoic acid I noticed the
solution change to various colours but did not stay like that, it always went back to its
original colour for a moment until it finally changed to it neutral colour which was greenish.
This happened for both of the ethanoic acid and the hydrochloric acid. And another thing that
I noticed in the second

Experiment was that most of this experiments take time to occur especially in the second
reaction with the ethanoic acid. Because we did the experiment three times it was after the
second time that we realised that we did not give or stir the solution well enough time for it to
change to a neutral form. And we even encountered the same problem in the magnesium third
experiment with the magnesium rubber although in this phase we were a bit careless with the
time notation so that delayed us by several minutes. And as I earlier said about the ethanoic
acid been a week acid, even the results prove that in most of the reactions the hydrochloric
acid reacts faster and more corrosive than that of the ethanoic acid.

Conclusion: This experiment was a success even though we had hit a few bumps but
we still achieved what we set to achieve.

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

Appendix:

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550

Reference: (following Harvard referencing style)

http://amrita.olabs.co.in/?sub=73&brch=3&sim=11&cnt=1http://amrita.olabs.co.in/?
sub=73&brch=3&sim=11&cnt=1 [24 October 2015]

http://www.ucc.ie/academic/chem/dolchem/html/comp/ethanol.html

24 October 2015]

Prepared by mark iordye SCM-031550