INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY – VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HCMC

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY LABORATORY

EXPERIMENT #1:

PREPARATION OF LABORATORY SOLUTIONS

Students

Tran Nguyen Hong Phuc

Unit

BTBC101IU Inorganic Chemistry

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 Date of Submission

8 May 2019

Lecturer/Tutor

Hoang Le Son

Nguyen Thanh Phong (T.A)

ABSTRACT

The first session of practical part of inorganic chemistry course is devoted to two most

fundamental tasks performed in the laboratory: preparing and testing solutions. To prepare

solution with desired concentration of the solute, depending on circumstances, techniques of

dissolving solute into the solvent or diluting the stock solution (parallel or serial dilution

techniques) are used. In this experiment, former technique is used to obtain solution of 0.01M

potassium permanganate (KMnO4); secondly, KMnO4 1.0mM, KMnO4 0.6mM, KMnO4

0.4mM solutions could be acquired by applying parallel dilution technique to the obtained

KMnO4 0.01M solution; finally, starting with the solution of KMnO4 2mM, serial dilution

technique is performed to obtain the solutions of KMnO4 with concentrations of 1.0mM,

0.5mM, 250µM, 62.5µM. To measure the concentration of solute of prepared solution, method

of spectrophotometry is used. In this experiment, the empirical concentration of coper (II)

sulfate (CuSO4) of prepared solution is deduced by measuring the absorbance of solution in the

1 cm cuvette by spectrophotometer whose wavelength is set to be 700 nm.

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INTRODUCTION

One of the most fundamental tasks carried out in the laboratory is preparing solutions. To

succeed in performing various experiments, solutions must be properly and accurately

prepared. Thus, it is necessary for chemists to master two essential skills: preparing the

solutions whose molarity is known and diluting the known molarity solutions to obtain the

solutions of new, less concentrated molarities. Molarity typically describes precise

concentration solutions of which the solvent's molecular weight is known. Solutes are

analytically weighed and volumes in volumetric flasks are measured.

In preparing the solution whose mass of solute are not so small, which in turn can be handled

by the analytical balance, technique of dissolving solute into the solvent is often used. Solute

whose mass has been already theoretically calculated are analytically weighted, then is

transferred into the volume-specific volumetric flasks, and finally dissolved in water until the

water level reaches the mark. Alternatively, in preparing low molarity solutions, technique of

diluting the stock solutions are used. The desired solution will be obtained by adding more

water into stock solution. The technique of diluting could be further classified as serial or

parallel dilutions. In the parallel dilutions, since desired concentrations do not share the

common dilution factor, the solutions with different concentrations but has the same volume

will be obtained by adding more water into different calculated-volume stock solution. In the

serial dilutions, on the other hand, the dilution of the stock solution is performed stepwise, in

which the dilution factor of each step is constant, to acquire the final desired solution.

After the task of preparing solution is complete, the next important step is to validate whether

the obtained solution has desired concentration of the solute. There are various techniques that

could be carried out to determine the exact quantity of the solute present in the solution. There

is the method of spectrophotometry that using the spectrophotometer to measure how much a

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sample of solution absorbs light by measuring the intensity of light as a beam of light passes

through it. The absorbance number obtained will be used to deduce the concentration of solute

by applying the Beer-Lambert Law.

MATERIALS AND PROCEDURE

Materials

Materials received included test tubes, volumetric flasks, beaker, pipette, dropper. The

chemicals used in this experiment were potassium permanganate, copper sulfate pentahydrate

and distilled water.

Procedure

The procedure was divided into two parts.

Part A is the preparation of potassium permanganate solution. Firstly, 250 mL of 0.01M

potassium permanganate solution was prepared in the volumetric flask. Secondly, a calculated

volume of 0.01M potassium permanganate solution was added into a 50-mL volumetric flask

and then an appropriate amount of distilled water was added to make 50 mL of 2 mM potassium

permanganate solution. Thirdly, using the parallel dilution method, 0.01M potassium

permanganate and distilled water was mixed to make 10 mL of potassium permanganate

solution in five test tubes in order of concentrations: 1.0mM, 0.6mM, 0.4mM, 0.2mM, 100µM.

After that, from the solution of 2 mM potassium permanganate, the serial dilution technique

was applied to make 6 mL of potassium permanganate in order from test tube 1 to 5: 1.0mM,

0.5mM, 250µM, 125µM and 62.5µM by transferring a calculated amount of solution from one

tube to the next.

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Part B is the testing of 0.10M copper sulfate pentahydrate. Firstly, a calculated amount of

copper sulfate and distilled water were added to a clean 50-mL volumetric flask to make 50

mL of 0.10M copper sulfate pentahydrate solution. After that, the solution is tested to see if the

concentration of solution is correct by placing a cuvette of solution in the spectrophotometer

which is set to a wavelength of 700 nm.

RESULTS

Part A. Preparation of KMnO4 solution

1. Preparation of 250mL of 0.01M KMnO4 solution

Table 1. Calculation for mass of solid KMnO4

Desired solution Mass of KMnO4

250mL KMnO4 0.01M 0.395g

Image 1. The obtained 250mL KMnO4 0.01M

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 2. Preparation of 50mL of 2mM KMnO4 solution using 0.01M KMnO4 solution

Table 2. Calculation for volume of KMnO4 0.01M needed to prepare 50mL KMnO4 2mM

The initial solution Calculated volume

50mL KMnO4 2mM 10mL KMnO4 0.01M

Image 2. The obtained 50mL KMnO4 2mM

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3/ Preparation of several solutions using the parallel dilution from 0.01M KMnO4 solution

Table 3. Calculation for volume of KMnO4 0.01M needed for parallel dilutions technique

Desired solution Calculated volume

10mL KMnO4 1.0mM 1mL KMnO4 0.01M

10mL KMnO4 0.6mM 0.6mL KMnO4 0.01M

10mL KMnO4 0.4mM 0.4mL KMnO4 0.01M

10mL KMnO4 0.2mM 0.2mL KMnO4 0.01M

10mL KMnO4 100μM 0.1mL KMnO4 0.01M

Image 3. The obtained solutions from parallel dilutions.

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4. Prepare several solutions using serial dilution technique

Table 4. Calculation for dilution factor

1.0 mM (1) 0.5 mM (2) 250 μM (3) 125 μM (4) 62.5 μM (5)

df 2 4 8 16 32

V2 6 6 6 6 6

V1 3 1.5 0.75 0.375 0.1875

Image 4. Serial dilutions in order of decreasing concentration of KMnO4

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Part B. Preparation/Testing of 0.10M copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate

Table 5. Calculation of the mass (g) of CuSO4 needed to prepare 50 mL 0.10 M solution

Calculation Result

1.Moles needed = 0.050L × 0.10 mol/L 5×10-3 mol

2.Molar mass of CuSO4.5H20 250 g/mol

3.Mass in grams needed (1 × 2) = moles × 1.25 g

molar mass

Image 5. 50 mL 0.10 M solution of 1.25 g of CuSO4.5H2O

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% Error

Absorbance at 700 nm, 0.10 M CuSO4.5H2O, known: 0.77

Absorbance at 700 nm, 0.10 M CuSO4.5H2O, measured: 0.748

A(measured) − A(known)
% 𝐸𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = × 100% ≈ −2.9 %
A(known)

Table 6. Measurement for the absorbance of CuSO4.5H2O solution at 700 nm

No. Abs K * Abs

1. 0.748 7.487

2. 0.748 7.488

3. 0.748 7.488

Image 6. The cuvettes of CuSO4.5H2O and distilled water

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DISCUSSION

Part A. Preparation of KMnO4 solution

1. Preparation of 250mL of 0.01M KMnO4 solution

Phenomena: A black purple solution is obtained in the 250mL volumetric flask.

Explanation: After pouring the KMnO4 into the beaker and stirring well, KMnO4 is dissolved

and the color of the solution turn into black purple. In order to transfer all the KMnO4 into the

flask, it is required to carefully rinse the weighting boat and the beaker with distilled water

several times. In the end, more distilled water was added to meet the required volume of the

solution.

2. Preparation of 50mL of 2mM KMnO4 solution using 0.01M KMnO4 solution

Phenomena: A dark purple solution is obtained in the 50mL volumetric flask.

Explanation: By using the parallel dilutions formula, the needed volume of KMnO4 0.01M is

calculated. After transferring the required amount of KMnO4 0.01M into the new 50mL

volumetric flask, distilled water was added until the new KMnO4 2mM solution reached 50mL.

The final solution has the less dark purple color than the KMnO4 0.01M because of the lower

molarity.

3. Preparation of several solutions using the parallel dilution from 0.01M KMnO4 solution

Phenomena: From left to right, the purple color of KMnO4’s brightness is increased

Explanation: With the parallel dilution formula, the needed volume of each KMnO4 solution

is calculated. Then, the needed amount of KMnO4 0.01M was transferred into the test tubes

and distilled water was added. In the case of the 5th test tube, due to the lack of accuracy of the

measuring equipment, the final volume was increased in order to measure and transfer KMnO4
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easier and more accurate. Since the downward trend from left to right of the molarity, the result

had the brightness of purple color increase respectively.

4. Prepare several solutions using serial dilution technique

Phenomenon: The color of the solution was lighter and lighter as the concentration of KMnO4

was cut down by half each step (dilution factor for each step is 2)

Explanation: By using serial dilution technique, the solute was diluted to the desired

concentration, and therefore the requirement for preparing solution with low concentration was

more precise, especially for the 62.5μM, this technique is needed to perform the exact

concentration since the available analytical balance is not able to produce creditable accuracy.

Part B. Preparation/Testing of 0.10M copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate

After filling the cuvette with the prepared CuSO4.5H2O and placing in the spectrometer to test

for the concentration of the solution three times, the absorbance was recorded to be 0.748.

There was error in the absorbance of the solution due to the inaccuracy in the process of

weighting and transferring the calculated solute to the flask, as well as the amount of distilled

water added to raise the volume to 50mL. As the result, the percentage of error reached

approximately - 2.9 %. According to the Beer-Lambert law, the absorbance is linear correlation

with the concentration of the solute and the length of cuvette [1]. Therefore, the negative error

indicates that the obtained copper (II) sulfate has lower concentration of solute than the

expected solution, CuSO4 0.1M

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CONCLUSIONS

Proper and accurate preparation of solution is the first essential step towards successful

experimentation. Depending the circumstances, technique of dissolving solute into solvent or

diluting the stock solution is performed. Particularly, the parallel and serial dilution technique

has been proved to obtain the solution with the very low concentration of solute with the high

accuracy. In our experiment, each dilution technique has been used to produce potassium

permanganate with different molarity.

However, since there is no further experiment conducted to determine the precise molarity of

the potassium permanganate obtained, the accuracy and preciseness of preparation process

remains uncertain. There were certainly mistakes that was being made during the procedure

that possibly caused the error, such as misusage of the equipment and materials (the volumetric

pipette and volumetric flasks), and so on.

The second part introduces the new method to measure the concentration of the solution by

using spectrophotometer. The absorbance recorded by machined is used to deduce the

concentration of the solute by referring to the Beer-Lambert Law. In our experiment,

spectrophotometry method has been used to test the molarity of the copper (II) sulfate. The

error is -2.9% relative to theoretical value, which is acceptable, indicating our procedure has

been successfully performed.

REFERENCES

[1] D. F. Swinehart (1962). The Beer-Lambert Law. Journal of Chemical Education, 39(7),

333

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