Jonathan Khan May 15, 2011

Ms. Crowley Using Freezing-Point Depression to Find Molecular Weight Lab

1. One possible source of error is not stirring the mixture of lauric and benzoic acids as they are being

melted. Due to the way that the substances were combined in the test tube, one of them was on top of the

other, therefore when mixing the two together while melting a homogenous solution is created. This way

when the solution cooled so that the freezing point could be measured, the freezing point measured

would be that of the solution and not that of the more dense liquid.

a. Assuming that the more dense liquid is benzoic acid, the freezing point of just the benzoic acid

would be measured, as the two acids are not mixed in solution. The freezing point of the benzoic

acid is higher than the freezing point of the solution of both acids. This in turn leads to a smaller

calculated freezing point depression. This would indicate a smaller molality of benzoic acid than

the actual value of the molality of benzoic acid of the solution. This smaller molality of benzoic

acid would then indicate fewer moles of benzoic acid present in the solution. When molecular

mass is calculated based on this, the calculated value for the molecular mass of benzoic acid

would increase, because the number of grams present is being divided by a smaller number of

moles.

2. Another source of error is not using the correct temperature as the freezing point for the mixture of the

two acids. By using the incorrect value for the freezing point of the mixture, the calculated freezing

point depression would increase if the temperature used was too low, and would decrease if the

temperature used was too high.

a. If the calculated value of the freezing point depression was too low, it would indicate a smaller

molality of benzoic acid than the actual value of the molality of benzoic acid of the solution. This

smaller molality of benzoic acid would then indicate fewer moles of benzoic acid present in the

solution. When molecular mass is calculated based on this, the calculated value for the molecular

mass of benzoic acid would increase, because the number of grams present is being divided by a

smaller number of moles.

 b. If the calculated value of the freezing point depression was too high, it would indicate a larger

molality of benzoic acid than the actual value of the molality of benzoic acid of the solution. This

larger molality of benzoic acid would then indicate more moles of benzoic acid present in the

solution. When molecular mass is calculated based on this, the calculated value for the molecular

mass of benzoic acid would decrease, because the number of grams present is being divided by a

larger number of moles.

3. Leaving some of the mixture on the thermometer will create a source of error by changing the molality

of the solution. Being that in this solution, the acids do not disassociate, the van’t Hoff factor is one and

therefore is negligible. Therefore all that will affect the freezing point depression is the molality of the

solution.

a. If the molality decreased, it would indicate fewer moles of benzoic acid present in the solution.

When molecular mass is calculated based on this, the calculated value for the molecular mass of

benzoic acid would increase, because the number of grams present is being divided by a smaller

number of moles.

b. In this scenario, the molality of the solution could not increase, because substances are being

removed from the solution, not added.

 Lauric Acid

Time Temperature
(seconds) °C
Lauric and Benzoic
0 Acids 57
Time30 55
Temperature
(Seconds)
60 °C
54.5
090 69
52
30
120 68
50
60
150 65
48.5
90
180 62
47.5
120
210 59
47
150
240 56.5
46.5
180
270 54
46
210
300 52.5
45
240
330 51
44.5
270
360 50
44.5
300
390 48.5
44.5
330
420 47.5
44.5
360
450 46
44.5
390
480 45
44.5
420
510 44
44.5
450
540 43
44.5
480
570 42
44.5
510
600 41
44.5
540
630 40.5
44.5
570
660 40
44.5
600
690 39
44.5
630
720 38.5
44.5
660
750 38
44.5
690
780 38
44.5
720
810 37.5
44.5
750
840 37.5
44.5
780
870 37.5
44.5
810
900 37.5
44.5
840
930 37.5
44.5
960 44.5
990 44.5
1020 44.5
1050 44.5
1080 44.5
1110 44.5
1140 44.5
1170 44.5
1200 44.5