AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS SCHOOL

Enthalpy Combustion
of Alcohol
Using and Controlling Reactions
By Jasmin Malhotra
LSG18 Kay Gillett
Marking Teacher: Amanda Watkin
Due: 18th June 2016
STAGE 2 SACE Report

Enthalpy of Combustion of Alcohols

Introduction
Combustion is chemically defined as a process more commonly known as
burning. It is one of the first chemical changes noticed by humans, partly due to
the dramatic effect it has on particular materials. Today, it is used for the means
by which combustion takes place and is well understood and defined as a form of
oxidation. This oxidation refers to any chemical reaction in which a substance
reacts with oxygen (Encyclopedia.com, 2016).
Fuels react with oxygen to release energy. Complete combustion occurs in an
environment generous of oxygen that cannot escape. Incomplete combustion
occurs when the supply of oxygen is limited and therefore occurs in a free
environment. Complete combustion releases more energy than incomplete
combustion. Incomplete combustion creates carbon monoxide, and more soot;
several factors that must be considered when choosing a fuel for a particular
purpose (Bbc.co.uk, 2016).

Hypothesis
It was hypothesised that an increase in the molar mass of the alcohol would
increase the molar enthalpy of combustion.

Variables
Independent: Molar Mass
Dependent: Enthalpy of Combustion
Controlled:
-

Mass of water
Air supply from the oxygen pump
Steel container used to hold the water
The glass dome

Materials
-

Methanol, Ethanol,
Propanol, Pentanol and
Heptanol spirit burners

Tripod

Retort Stand

A Thermometer

Bunsen Burner

500mL distilled water

1 X heat tile

1 X 250mL beaker / 1 X
500mL beaker

Lighter

Glass dome

1 X 100ml measuring
cylinder

Steel container

Trough filled with ice water

Styrofoam

Oxygen pump

Method
1.
2.
3.
4.

The apparatus was arranged as the setup shown below in figure 1.

The air pump was switched on.
The wick for the methanol spirit burner was cut to measure 1cm.
The spirit burner was weighed with the lid on to achieve an initial mass.
This was the recorded.
5. The spirit burner was then placed on top of the retort stand inside the
glass dome.
6. The steel container was weighed.
7. Using a 100ml measuring cylinder, 100ml of ice water was transferred into
the steel container.
8. The initial temperature of the water in the steel container was recorded.
9. The wick of the spirit burner was set alight using a lighter.
10.The steel container was promptly placed on top of the glass dome.
11.The steel container was then covered using a Styrofoam box with a large
enough opening in it for it to sit on the steel container.
12.The water was then continuously stirred using the thermometer through a
hole in the Styrofoam at a constant pace.
13.When the temperature of the water reached a minimum of 20 degrees, the
wick of the burner was extinguished and the maximum temperature
reached by the water was recorded.
14.The spirit burner was weighed to achieve a difference in mass from the
initial mass.
15.The steel container was cooled using the ice water bath.
16.Steps 3 to 15 were repeated in order for 2 repetitions of the same fuel and
spirit burners containing different fuels to be completed.

Annotated diagram
Results
Table
experiment

1: Initial data that was recorded during the

Data Recorded During the Experiment

Initial Final Mass
Initial
Maximu
Mass Mass
of
Temperat
m
of
of
Alco
ure (C)
Temperat
Spirit Spirit
hol
ure (C)
burn
burn
burn
er (g) er (g) t (g)
1
Methan 283.5 282.7 0.761
22
32
ol
5
9
Propan 264.9 264.7 0.247
17
23
ol
4
0
Pentan 248.8 248.4 0.421
16
36
ol
9
7
Heptan 231.8 231.5 0.343
20
41
ol
9
4
2
Methan 258.0 257.9 0.061
16
28
ol
6
9
Propan 264.5 264.4 0.152
14
27
ol
5
0
PentanSetup (Jasmin Malhotra, ASMS, Year 12)
Figure 1: Apparatus
ol
Heptan
ol
Tri
al

Alcoho
l fuel

T
(C
)

10
6
20
21
12
13

To calculate the enthalpy of combustion, the change in temperature, mass of

alcohol burnt, number of moles of fuel burnt (n), initial mass of the water and the
specific heat capacity of water (Cp) was needed. Using the data found above in
table 1 during the practical, the average mass of the alcohol burnt, the average

T , were found and can be seen below in the table 2.

The formula used to calculate the enthalpy of combustion is:

H=

mas swater T water C pwater

kJ mol1
1000 nalcohol

The mass of water was constant for all the repetitions (100g). The heat capacity
of water is constant as it cannot be changed (4.18 J g -1).
For example:
Calculate the enthalpy of combustion of methanol (if unsure where some of these
numbers came from, they may be in table 2 below)

H=

mas s water T water C p water

kJ mo l1
1000 nalcohol

H=

100 114.18
kJ mol1
1000 0.0128

H=359.21875 kJ mol1

3.6 102 kJmol1(2 sf )

To calculate the molar mass of the fuel, the periodic table provides the atomic
masses of the elements in the chemical structures of the substance.
For example:
What is the molar mass of Methanol?
Methanol has the chemical formula CH3OH
Atomic masses:
C: 12.01
H: 1.008
O: 16.00

M =12.01+ ( 4 1.008 )+16.00

M =32.042
To calculate the number of moles, the mass of the alcohol burnt must be divided
by the Molar mass of the alcohol which was found using the periodic table.
For example:

Calculate the number of moles in Methanol.

n=

m
M

m=0.411 g
M =32.042

n=

0.411
32.042

n=0.0128269146
n=0.0128(3 sf )
The calculated data can be seen below in table 2.
Table 2: Data calculated and recorded prior to collecting the initial data

Alcohol
fuel

Methano
l
Propanol
Pentanol
Heptanol

Avera
ge
Mass
of
Alcoh
ol
burnt
(g)
0.411
0.200
0.421
0.343

Comparable Data
Average
Molar
Number
Mass
of
moles
T
of fuel
(C)
burnt

Experiment
al Enthalpy
of
Combustion

Literature
Values

11.0

32.0

0.0128

-359.0

-359.0

9.50
20.0
21.0

61.1
88.1
116.0

0.00322
0.00478
0.00295

-12.3 x 102
-17.5 x 102
-29.8 x 102

-12.0 x 102
-17.5 x 102
-29.7 x 102

To confirm or reject the hypothesis, a graph of the molar mass and enthalpy of
combustion was recorded to show whether it was supported or refuted (figure 2).
According to Table 2, the hypothesis is supported as a larger molar mass resulted
in a larger enthalpy of combustion value.

Molar Mass vs the Enthalpy of Combustion of Alcohols

5000
4000
3000

2975.59

Enthalpy of Combustion (kJmol-1) 2000

1748.95
1233.23

1000

359.22

0
0

50

100

150

Molar Mass
Experimental Enthalpy of Combustion
Linear (Experimental Enthalpy of Combustion)
literature values
Linear (literature values)
Figure 2: Graph showing the relationship between the molar mass and the enthalpy of combustion
(calculated and true values) of alcohols

Figure 2 shows quite a large separation between the literature and found values
of the enthalpy of combustion. This is acceptable given the setting and
equipment available. Not all the results were completed under the same
conditions. Towards the end of the experiment, as one of the spirit burners was lit
beneath the Styrofoam, the glass dome began to crack and therefore it was no
longer safe to continue collecting data.

Discussion
Chemical reactions are usually accompanied by the absorption or release of heat
and/or light energy. The quantity of heat energy released or absorbed when
certain amounts of matter react is called the heat of reaction. For reactions
conducted at constant pressure, the heat from the reaction is called the enthalpy
change represented by the symbol

H . The quantity of heat energy that is

released or absorbed during a reaction is directly proportional to the amount of

reactions or also known as the number of moles (Morton, Evans and McCann,
2011).
The enthalpy change for a reaction is measured in Joules (J) or Kilojoules (kJ) per
mole or gram of a specified reactant or product. The molar enthalpy change for a
reaction is the quantity of heat energy released or absorbed when 1.00 mole of a
certain substance reacts in a chemical reaction under constant pressure.
For exothermic reactions like those completed in this experiment; heat energy is
lost to the surroundings, hence the products of the reaction would have less heat
content (enthalpy) than the reactants. For endothermic reactions, heat energy is

absorbed from the surroundings; therefore the products of the reaction would
have larger enthalpy than the reactants. For this reason, columns 6 and 7 have
been written as negative numbers to represent a release of energy.
The molar enthalpy of combustion of a material is the quantity of heat energy
released when 1.00 mol of a pure element 1compound is burnt completely in the
in oxygen under constant pressure. Such as completed in this investigation, for
the combustion of hydrocarbons consisting of C, H and O, only, the products are
gaseous carbon dioxide and liquid water only. For example, the equation of the
combustion of methanol can be seen below:
2 CH3OH(l) + 3 O2(g) 2 CO2(g) + 4 H2O(l)
For this investigation, it cannot be assumed that all of the heat energy absorbed
by the reaction was completely transferred to the known mass of water in the
steel container. This is because, given the laboratory settings of a high school, it
is almost impossible to ensure security of air. However the design for this
particular experiment did create a sort of dome to surround the surrounding air
of the apparatus. The glass dome surrounding the apparatus (refer to figure 1)
did hold the concept of not allowing air from the oxygen pump to escape,
however so much so that not enough air was able to support the flame of the
spirit burner. This resulted in the flame continuously blowing out and causing the
spirit burner to be re-weighed as to keep the change in mass as precise as
possible. This also resulted in not enough data being collected and therefore
causing less accuracy of results to the true literature values. This is a systematic
error and could have been improved by using an oxygen pump that allows more
oxygen to be pumped out.
Because of time being limited, it was decided for the last few alcohols to reduce
the minimum temperature for the water to reach. This may not have affected the
results however in doing so; the procedure was not kept constant for all trials.
Due to the setup; a random error could have been; having to continuously
remove the dome to light re-light the flame of the wick, then having to return the
dome back to its position over the flame caused inconsistency. Due to the slight
drafts from removing the dome, the flame was not concentrated at the same
point throughout the experiment. To possibly improve this, a larger wick could
have been used.
However given the found results in this investigation, the larger molar mass did
have a larger enthalpy of combustion.

Conclusion
The hypothesis was supported for the reason that an increase in the molar mass
did cause an increase in the calculated enthalpy of combustion. However stated
1 A pure element is a substance consisting of only one isotope of a
single element (Reference, 2016).

improvements could be made to increase the accuracy of the calculated values

to the true literature values.

References
Encyclopedia.com. (2016). combustion Facts, information, pictures |
Encyclopedia.com articles about combustion. [online] Available at:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/combustion.aspx [Accessed 9 Jun. 2016].
Bbc.co.uk. (2016). BBC - GCSE Bitesize: Combustion. [online] Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/ocr_gateway_pre_2011/carbon
_chem/7_using_carbon_fuels1.shtml [Accessed 9 Jun. 2016].
Morton, B., Evans, C. and McCann, M. (2011). Chemistry. Adelaide, S. Aust.: Greg
Eather in association with Adelaide Tuition Centre.
Reference. (2016). What is a pure element in chemistry?. [online] Available at:
https://www.reference.com/science/pure-element-chemistry-16381eb835b94068
[Accessed 10 Jun. 2016].