S5 Chemistry

______________

Unit 1 Energy Changes and Rates of Reaction

Date:

Calorimetry - Measuring Energy Changes

A 100.0 g piece of metal is heated to ~80oC. The hot metal is placed into a beaker of
water. What would you expect to happen to the temperature of the water? What if the
water were replaced with oil?

Specific Heat Capacity:

Substance
aluminum
water (liquid)
water (solid)
water (gas)
ethanol
air

Specific Heat
Capacity
(J/g oC)
0.897
4.184
2.11
2.08
2.44
1.01

Molar Heat Capacity:

Substance
glass
diamond
helium
concrete
human tissue
wood

Specific Heat
Capacity (J/g oC)
0.84
0.51
5.19
0.88
3.5
1.2 2.3

Calorimetry
To measure the heat flow in a process, the system must be isolated from its surrounding. A
calorimeter is a device used to measure changes in thermal energy and calorimetry is
the technological process of measuring changes in thermal
energy.
In a polystyrene calorimeter, a known mass of water is inside
the polystyrene cup. The water surrounds and is in direct
contact with the process that produces the energy change. The
heat transferred to or from the water is a measure of the heat
released or absorbed by the system.
Assumptions that are made with this method:
A bomb calorimeter has many more parts than a polystyrene calorimeter. Therefore, you
cannot assume that the heat lost to the calorimeter is small enough to be negligible. To
obtain precise heat measurements, you must know or find out the heat capacity of the

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S5 Chemistry
______________

Unit 1 Energy Changes and Rates of Reaction

Date:

bomb calorimeter. It is usually expressed in kJ/C, but unlike specific heat capacity which
refers to a _______________, heat capacity refers to ________________________.
Cbomb = Cwater + Cthermometer + Cstirrer + Ccontainer
Example 1: 70.0g of a metal was heated to 95.0oC in a hot water bath. It was then
transferred to a polystyrene calorimeter. The calorimeter contained 100.0g of water at an
initial temperature of 19.8oC. The final temperature of the contents of the calorimeter was
22.6 oC. What is the specific heat capacity of the metal?

Example 2: Identify the Hsol of calcium chloride by experimentation using calorimetry.

te
m
pe
ra
tu
re
(o
C)

-60

-30

30

60

90

120

150

180

210

240

270

time (s)

Specific Heat Capacity and Heat Transfer Problems

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S5 Chemistry
______________

Unit 1 Energy Changes and Rates of Reaction

Date:

1. What is the amount of heat absorbed when 200 g of water is heated from 15C to
35C?
2. What is the temperature change when 15 kg of mercury loses 25 kJ of heat?
3. The molar heat capacity of liquid sodium is 28.4 J/K mol. How much heat is required
to raise the temperature of 5.67 g of liquid sodium by 3.75 Kelvins?
4. When 5.16 kJ of heat is added to 167 g of gaseous ammonia at 45.0 C, the
temperature of the gas rises to 60.0C. From this data determine the following:
a) the specific heat of NH3 (g)
b) the molar heat capacity of NH3(g)
5. If at 25C, 15.7 g of carbon dioxide absorbs 1.2 kJ of heat, calculate the final
temperature of the gas. The molar heat capacity of CO2 is 37.11 J/K mol.
6. A 24.6 g sample of nickel is heated to 110.0 C and then placed in a coffee cup
calorimeter containing 125 g of water at a temperature of 23.00 C. After the nickel
cools the final temperature of the metals and water is 24.83C. Assuming that no
heat has escaped to the surroundings of has been absorbed by the calorimeter,
calculate the specific heat of nickel.
7. When a student puts 1.0 kg of an unknown liquid at a temperature of 25C to 2.0 kg
of water at a temperature of 45C, the final temperature of the mixture is 40C.
Assuming no loss of heat to the surroundings, what is the specific heat capacity of
the liquid? What liquid is this?
8. When solutions of an acid and a base are mixed, heat is released. Using a coffee
cup calorimeter, 100 mL of 1.25 mol/L hydrochloric acid are mixed with 100 mL of
1.10 mol/L sodium hydroxide solution. The initial temperature of the solutions was
22.6 C and the temperature after mixing was 28.4 C. Calculate the molar enthalpy
of neutralization for the reaction:
HCl (aq) + NaOH (aq) NaCl (aq) + H2O (l)
(assume that the density and specific heat capacity of each solution is the same as
that of water Dwater = 1.00 g/mL). Note the answer obtained for this question is the
experimental, not the theoretical value.
9. **CHALLENGE** A 135 g sample of dilute hydrochloric acid is placed in a copper
calorimeter with a mass of 465 g. The temperature of the acid and calorimeter is
11.7 C. A mass of 5.00 g of aluminium metal is reacted with the acid. After the
reaction has ceased, the temperature of 22.3 C. Calculate the molar enthalpy
change for the reaction:
Al (s) + 3 HCl (aq) AlCl3 (aq) + 3/2 H2 (g)
(assume that dilute hydrochloric acid has the same specific heat as water)

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