Making Salts

Aim: To produce sodium chloride salt by carrying out a neutralisation reaction.



Equipment 
- Copper Oxide Powder
- Dilute Sulfuric acid
- 50mL measuring cylinder
- Two 100 mL beakers
- Bunsen Burner
- Tripod
- Gauze Mat
- Funnel
- Filter Paper
- Thermometer
- Spatula
- Evaporating Basin
- Stirring rod.

Method
- Add 20mL of sulfuric acid to a 100mL beaker. Heat the acid until it reaches 70℃. Turn off your Bunsen burner.

- Once heated use a spatula to add pea-sized portions of copper oxide to the beaker. Stir the mixture for 30 seconds.

- Repeat step 2 until no more will dissolve. Allow the beaker to cool.

- Fold the filter paper and place it in the funnel. Place the filter funnel into the second beaker.

- Make sure the beaker is cool enough to hold at the top. The contents should still be hot. You may need your teacher to complete this step.

- Gently swirl the contents of the beaker to mix, and then pour into the filter paper in the funnel. Allow to filter through.

- Rinse the beaker you used to heat the mixture previously, and then place it back on top of your tripod filled with 50-60 mL of water.

- Place the evaporating basin on top of the beaker and carefully pour some of the solution from the beaker into the evaporating basin.

- Gently heat the beaker until the solution in the evaporating basin has reduced by half.

- Leave the evaporating basin to cool. Once cool, move the evaporating basin to a warm place where it will not be disturbed. ( I.e a window-sill) and observe over the next few days. Blue copper sulphate crystals should form.



Observations
The copper oxide was black in powder form. Once adding it into the sulfuric acid it had reacted and changed colour to a gloomy blue tone. When burning the solution the solution started to crystalise and crystals began to form.

Results 
At the end of the experiment, the liquid that was still in the basin had completely evaporated and we were left with little crystals.

Discussion
The experiment went well. It was really fun and also time-consuming because we had to be very patient. When we first added the copper oxide the colour of the sulfuric acid had changed to a pool colour but as we added more copper oxide it had started to look like charcoal.

Conclusion
The experiment went pretty well. At first, we thought nothing would happen but then we noticed everything was starting to crystalise. It was cool to see the crystals forming but it did take a long time.