Philip Sawyer

Mrs. Shirley

Chemistry 2

1 February 2011

Title: Solubility of KNO3

Objective: The objective of the Solubility of KNO3 lab was to find the solubility of

potassium nitrate with different amounts of it and the temperatures at which the potassium nitrate

crystallized.

Introduction: During the lab, the objective was to find out how fast KNO3 crystallized in

different amounts. In this lab, water was the solvent. A solvent is the liquid that dissolves a

chemical compounds. The KNO3 was the solute or the substance that dissolves into a solvent.

The solubility is the maximum amount of the compound that can be dissolved in water. The

amount of KNO3 in the solution is called solubility. If the KNO3 is less than what the water can

handle, then it is an unsaturated solution. If the amount of KNO3 is equal to the maximum

amount of what the water could handle, then it is called saturated. If the amount of KNO3 is more

than the water can handle, then it is supersaturated. When a solution is supersaturated, it forms

what is called a precipice. This is excess solute that gathers in the solution and bonds together

(Investigating Chemistry).
Pre-lab Questions

1.Oil and vinegar salad dressing forms two separate layers because the oil is a non polar

compound. The vinegar in turn is a polar compound therefore they do not combine unless

the bottle is shaken up.

2. While making hot chocolate, stirring the chocolate mix and the water helps the

solvation process. Stirring pared with heat and the only ways to speed up the rate of

solvation. Stirring mixes the two different compounds together so that they join together

and start the solvation process faster(Investigating Chemistry).

3. The solubility of sugar is increased by temperature because when temperatures

increases the solubility of the substance increases(Investigating Chemistry).

4. The phrase “like dissolves like” means that when the solute and the solvent have the

same chemical structural, they will dissolve into each other the best (Wikipedia).

5.Solubility is expressed by the amount of the substance in grams over 100ml of water

(Mrs.Shirley’s Notes).

Materials / Methods:

· Balance -Hotplate -400ml beaker -Thermometer -10ml graduate cylinder

· Wax pencil -Spatula -Test tube -Stirring rod -Test tube holder and rack
 We started by filling the 400ml beaker with water and placed it on the hot plate so that

the temperature would get close to 90oC. Then we filled four test tubes with different amounts of

KNO3 and with five milliliters of water. The amounts of KNO3 were 2g, 4g, 6g, and 8.02g. Once

the water in the 400ml beaker was at 90 oC, we placed one test tube at a time into the water and

stirred it until the KNO3 was dissolved into the water. We repeated this step for the remaining

three test tubes. Once the KNO3 was dissolved, we waited for the crystallization process to

begin. Once a white substance(crystallization) started forming in the bottom of the test tube, we

took the temperature(oC) at which the crystallization started happening.

Results:

The results of the solubility of KNO3 lab proved that the more KNO3 that was in the

solution that it began to crystallize faster and at a higher temperature. The first test that was done

had the least amount of KNO3 at two grams. This solution took a long time to crystallize and the

test tube had to be placed in cool water in order for the crystallizing to start. When the

crystallization began it was 23.9 oC. The second test tube which had four grams of KNO3 started

to crystallizing at 53.0 oC, a little more than doubling the temperature from the previous test tube.

The third test tube which contained 6 grams of KNO3, started crystallizing at 65.3 oC. The fourth

test tube containing 8.02 grams of KNO3, started crystallizing at 73.6 oC, the highest

crystallization temperature for the whole lab.

 Crystallization Grams
Test Tube Grams of KNO3 ml of water
temperature oC KNO3/100ml H2O

1 2g 5ml 23.9 oC 40g/ml

2 4g 5ml 53.0 oC 80g/ml
3 6g 5ml 65.3 oC 120g/ml
4 8.02g 5ml 73.6 oC 160.4g/ml

Solubility of KNO3
200.0
Crystallization temperature

150.0

100.0

50.0

0
0 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00
Grams KNO3/100ml H2O

Conclusion: The lab of the Solubility of KNO3 met all of the objectives. I was able to

determine the solubility of potassium nitrate with different amounts of it in the solutions and

determine the temperatures at which the solutions started to crystallize. The more potassium

nitrate that was present in the solution, the higher the temperature was at which crystallization

began. The more potassium nitrate that was in each test tube caused the solution to become more
and more supersaturated. The caused a precipice to form, also known as crystallization, at the

bottom of the test tubes much faster than the solutions that had less potassium nitrate.
 Works Cited

Johll, Matthew E.. Investigating Chemistry. New York: W.H. Freeman And Company, 2007.

Print.

Shirley, Anne. General Chemistry. “Chapter 5 notes.”

"Solubility." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2011. <http://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility>.