Measurement of an Enthalpy Change (AQA A Level Chemistry): Revision Note

Measurement of an Enthalpy Change

Required Practical 2

Measuring enthalpy changes

• Calorimetry is a technique used to measure changes in the enthalpy of chemical reactions

• A calorimeter can be made up of a polystyrene drinking cup, a vacuum flask, or a metal can

• The energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 g of a substance by 1 K is called the specific heat capacity (c) of the liquid

• The specific heat capacity of water is 4.18 J g^-1 K^-1

• The energy transferred as heat can be calculated by:

• There are two types of calorimetry experiments for you to know:

  • Enthalpy changes of reactions in solution

  • Enthalpy changes of combustion

• In both cases, you should be able to give an outline of the experiment and be able to process experimental data using calculations or graphical methods

Enthalpy changes for reactions in solution

• The principle of these calorimetry experiments is to carry out the reaction with an excess of one reagent and measure the temperature change over the course of a few minutes

• The apparatus needed to carry out an enthalpy of reaction in solution calorimetry experiment is shown above

     Sample method for a displacement reaction

1. Using a measuring cylinder, place 25 cm³ of the 1.0 mol dm^-3 copper(II) sulfate solution into the polystyrene cup

2. Weigh about 6 g of zinc powder, as this is an excess, there is no need to be very accurate

3. Draw a table to record the initial temperature and then the temperature and time every minute up to 15 minutes

4. Put a thermometer or temperature probe in the cup, stir, and record the temperature every minute for 3 minutes

5. At precisely 4 minutes, add the zinc powder to the cup (do not record the temperature at 4 minutes)

6. Continue stirring and record the temperature for an additional 11 minutes

• For the calculations, some assumptions are made about the experiment:

  • That the specific heat capacity of the solution is the same as pure water, i.e., 4.18 J g^-1 K^-1

  • That the density of the solution is the same as pure water, i.e., 1 g cm^-3

  • The specific heat capacity of the container is ignored

  • The reaction is complete

  • There are negligible heat losses

Temperature correction graphs

• For reactions that are not instantaneous, there may be a delay before the maximum temperature is reached

• During that delay, the substances themselves may be losing heat to the surroundings, so that the true maximum temperature is never actually reached

• To overcome this problem, we can use graphical analysis to determine the maximum enthalpy change

The steps to make a temperature correction graph are:

1. Take a temperature reading before adding the reactants for a few minutes to get a steady value

2. Add the second reactant and continue recording the temperature and time

3. Plot the graph and extrapolate the cooling part of the graph until you intersect the time at which the second reactant was added

Enthalpy of Combustion Experiments

• The principle here is to use the heat released by a combustion reaction to increase the heat content of water

• A typical simple calorimeter is used to measure the temperature changes in the water

A simple combustion calorimeter

• To complete this experiment, the following steps will need to be completed:

• Record the starting temperature and the final temperature to complete the calculations

• Also record the starting mass of the spirit burner and the final mass of the spirit burner, so that the mass of the fuel burned during the reaction can be worked out

  • This will then be used to calculate the moles, which will be used to convert Q to an enthalpy change in the calculations

Key points to consider

• Not all the heat produced by the combustion reaction is transferred to the water

  • Some heat is lost to the surroundings

  • Some heat is absorbed by the calorimeter

• To minimise the heat losses, the copper calorimeter should not be placed too far above the flame, and a lid should be placed over the calorimeter

• Shielding can be used to reduce draughts

• In this experiment, the main sources of error are

  • Heat losses

  • Incomplete combustion

Related topics

• Calorimetry

• Enthalpy Changes

• Hess' Law