LE CHATELIER S PRINCIPLE - EQUILIBRIUM LAB

LIELLE POSEN

PROBLEM STATEMENT

An investigation into the equilibrium and shifts in the equilibrium in the reaction below: [Fe(H2O)6]3+(aq) + SCN(aq) *Fe(H2O)5SCN]2+(aq) + H2O(l) yellow-brown
BACKGROUND

Blood-red

Equilibrium can only be achieved when the products of a reaction can then react with one another to then produce the starting reactants, therefore a reversible reaction is needed. This is therefore essential to allow an equilibrium to take place. This consequently means that to be in equilibrium there would have to be a balance between both reactions (forward reaction and reverse reaction). However for some reactions when this equilibrium is met all processes and reactions subside which means that all reactants shall remain reactants and all products remain products (known as static equilibrium). Consequently there is dynamic equilibrium which allows processes to remain after equilibrium is met. Therefore reactions still take place but equilibrium is still achieved because when the reactant side becomes slightly more favored, then the products side gains more concentration taking compounds away from the favored side to allow balance. Therefore Le Chateliers Principle is the bigger size picture of this backwards forward combination, and consequently it can only actually be used for dynamic equilibrium where reactions linger. Thus the principle means that when a change occurs that creates favoritism towards a given side then this will naturally be equaled out by consequently favoring the not preferred reaction (forward or reverse). If a compound from the forward reaction is added therefore giving the forward reaction more concentration then this will be equaled out by making the number of atoms in the reaction to decrease to value between the increased value and original value whilst the reverse reaction will have an increase in atoms. This consequently brings back equilibrium and balance between both sides. The factors effected by said principle are the concentration, pressure, and temperature.
MATERIALS

100cm3 measuring cylinder 20cm3 measuring cylinder

4X 100cm3 beakers Stirring rod 90cm3 of 0.02 mol dm-3 aqueous potassium thiocyanate 12cm3 of aqueous 0.1 mol dm-3 iron(III) nitrate. a little solid potassium thiocyanate a spatula full of sodium fluoride dropper

SAFETY CONCERNS Wear gloves when dealing with chemicals Wear goggles at all times Wear lab coat as the chemicals can stain clothing Do not touch eyes before washing hands Tie up hair and other loose clothing

PROCEDURE

The procedure and questions asked during the experiment:

A: THE REACTION BETWEEN IRON (III) IONS AND THIOYANATE IONS

1) In a 100cm3 measuring cylinder mix together 90cm3 of 0.02 mol dm-3 aqueous potassium thiocyanate and 10cm3 aqueous 0.1 mol dm-3 iron (III) nitrate. 2) Mix thoroughly and divide the solution equally amongst four 100cm3 beakers labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4 3) Keep the beaker labelled 1 as a control for the other parts of the experiment. You will use the other three for the later parts of the experiment 4) Record your observations about what you saw taking place as the solutions were mixes and what you infer from this.
B: INCREASING THE CONCENTRATION OF IRON (III) IONS

5) To beaker 2 add 2 cm3 of the aqueous iron (III) nitrate. Compare it with beaker 1. What is the difference? 6) How can you explain this? 7) What would you expect the effect of adding extra potassium thiocyanate to be?
C: INCREASE THE CONCENTRATION OF THIOCYANATE IONS

8) To beaker 3 add a little solid potassium thiocyanate. Compare it with beaker 1. Were your observations in keeping with your predictions above? 9) How has adding extra thiocyanate affected the amount of the complex ion?

10) How can this be explained?

D: ADDING FLUORIDE I ONS

11) Add a spatula full of solid sodium fluoride to beaker 4. Compare it with beaker 1. How did the color of the solution change? 12) How has the concentration of the complex ion been affected? 13) Flopride ions do not react directly with the complex ions but they do react with iron(III) ions to give a colourless, soluble product. What does the effect of fluoride ions show about the reaction of iron(III) ions and thiocyanate ions to form the complex?

RAW AND PRESENTED DATA

TABLE 1: REACTANTS COLORS COMPARED TO COLOR C HANGE WHEN ADDED TOGETHER TO FORM A SOLUTION (CONTROLLED VARIABLE)

KSCN (aq)

Fe(NO3) (aq)

Control: 90cm of 0.02 mol dm KSCN (aq) + 10 3 -3 cm 0.1 mol dm of Fe(NO3) (aq)
3 -3

Color

(translucent)

TABLE 2: COLOR CHANGE COMPARED TO THE CONTROLLED VARIABLE ([KSCN + FE(NO 3 ] SOLUTION) WHEN KSCN, FE(NO 3 ) AND NaF ARE ADDED TO THE SOLUTION.

[KSCN + Fe(NO3) Solution] + Fe(NO3) (aq) Change Slightly less bloodred

[KSCN + Fe(NO3) Solution] + KSCN (s)

[KSCN + Fe(NO3) Solution] + NaF (s)

More blood-red

Turns light red then translucent

Color

( t

(translucent)

Control Color

CONCLUSION
Fe(NO 3 )

It can be induced that by adding Fe(NO3), according to Le Chateliers Principle the increase in concentration to the products would cause the equilibrium to shift towards the reactants side and therefore producing the yellow-brown color rather than blood-red. The reverse reaction (products) has more concentration and therefore there are more atoms colliding to produce the reactants from the forward reaction and consequently the equilibrium will slightly favor this particular side and this can be viewed by the change in color.
KSCN

It can be inferred that by adding KSCN to the solution it will increase concentration of the reactants (forward reaction). There are more reactants and therefore more likelihood of collisions to occur to produce the products. Therefore to balance and obtain an equilibrium the reactants will decrease their concentration to a mid-value while the decreased concentration from the reactants becomes increased concentration of the products. This means that the equilibrium shifts to the products side and therefore producing the more blood-red color.
NaF

The NaF has the greatest effect (compared to the added Fe(NO3) and KSCN) on the colorization of the solution. This is because by adding the covalently bonded compound when

the ionic bond breaks it leaves the solution with positive and negative ions. The negative F - ions bond with the Iron, and this means that there is not enough efficient collisions to allow for the dynamic reaction to remain and therefore the solution become translucent. However if more concentration is added of Fe(NO3) or KSCN then it is possible to get the solution back into equilibrium between the forward and reverse reactions.
TEMPERATURE

The forward reaction is exothermic (releases heat) whilst the reverse reaction is endothermic (absorbs heat) therefore if the temperature were to decrease the solution would become more blood-red as more products (reverse reaction) would be formed. However, if the temperature increases then the solution would turn yellow-brown as the reactants (forward reaction) would be formed.
EVALUATION OF YOUR RESULTS COMPARED TO ACCEPTED RESULTS

The IB Chemistry book written by both John Green and Sadru Damji analyze the reversible reaction using changes in concentration to mostly examine Le Chantiler s Principle and how it is effected by such a change. In the experiment when KSCN was added the solution turned more blood-red and there was a shift of equilibrium towards the products side. This is furthermore suggested by the book when it states If aqueous thiocyanate ions are added than the solution will turn a more blood-red color. Therefore it is fair to state that the change in equilibrium can be observed qualitatively by comparing the change in color, and contently this change in color can give insight to which side is initially favored and which side the equilibrium shifts towards because of this favoritism. To conclude it is possible to actually observe Le Chateliers Principle as well as allowing a qualitative way to gain information on equilibrium.