Enthalpy Change During Combustion Essay

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Background Information:

Alcohols are a family of organic compounds containing the hydroxyl (-OH) functional group. In this experiment the five different alcohols used will be:

Methanol1 Ethanol1 Propan-1-ol1

Butan-1-ol1 Pentan-1-ol1 As can be seen from the structural formulae above, as one moves down the homologous series carbon atoms are added to the hydrocarbon chain and therefore the number of carbon atoms increases. …show more content…

Calculating the Enthalpy change during Combustion:

The formula for the Enthalpy change during combustion is

∆H = mc∆T
Where ∆H is the enthalpy change during combustion measured in joules, m is the mass of the water in grams, c is the specific heat capacity of water the ∆T is the change in the temperature in kelvin.

Therefore,

Enthalpy change during combustion= 100g x 4.18 J g-1 K-1 x 40K

= 16720 J

6. Calculating the Enthalpy change of Combustion:

The Enthalpy change of Combustion of Methanol is the enthalpy change per mole. Therefore the result above must be divided by the number of moles of methanol …show more content…

Calculating the Uncertainties in the measurements:

Uncertainty in the mass balance = 0.001 g
Mass of methanol burnt = 3.132 g ± 0.002g
Percentage Uncertainty = 0.002 g x 100 % 3.132g = 0.063 %
Uncertainty in the thermometer = 0.1 ̊C
Temperature Difference = 40.0 ̊C ± 0.2 ̊C
Percentage Uncertainty = 0.2 ̊C x 100 % 40.0 ̊C = 0.5 %

Uncertainty in the measuring cylinder = 0.5 cm3
Volume of Water taken = 100 cm3
Percentage Uncertainty = 0.5 cm3 x 100% 100 cm3 = 0.5 %
To calculate the total uncertainty all the percentage uncertainties calculated above must be added, = 0.063 % + 0.5% + 0.5%
= 1.063%

To find out the uncertainty in the enthalpy change of combustion of methanol 1.063% of 171.1 kJmol-1 must be taken.
= ± 1.818 kJmol-1
The same procedure was used to calculate the enthalpy change of combustion for the other alcohols used in this experiment and their

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