Chemistry Lab Narrative Essay

The purpose of this lab was to see which solutions are soluble and which are not. We were able to see this by mixing certain solutions together and observing changes that occurred. The procedure for this experiment included a few different steps. The first steps were to add the nitrate solutions into the lettered parts of the 96-well plate. Once you were done with that, you were supposed to add the sodium solutions to the numbered parts of the 96-well plate, so that the solutions were added together. You were supposed to observe the different reactions occurring. Once you observed each reaction take place, you needed to fill out your data table. Once you recorded all of the data, there were a few questions that needed to be answered.

A. Compare your results with the solubility rules and/or solubility table in your chemistry text. I would say that my results turned out pretty close to the rules in the textbook. I observed many different reactions occurring. The colors of the solutions changed from clear to purple, from clear to blue and yellow, and from clear to a milky white color. There were also changes from a light yellow to a dark almost orange color.

B. Do your results agree with your expectations from the solubility rules/table? My results do agree with my expectations, however, I wasn’t expecting all of the solutions to be soluble.
C. Which anions generally form precipitates? What are the exceptions? Silver salts, Phosphates, Sulfides, Carbonates, Hydroxides. Exceptions include alkali metals.
D. Which anions generally do not form precipitates? What are the exceptions? Nitrates, Alkali metals, Ammonium salts, Halides, and Acetates. The exceptions include those mentioned above that would form precipitates.
E. Which cations generally do not form precipitates? Na+ generally does not form precipitates.
F. Select 10 reactions that produce a precipitate, color change, or gas and write a balanced chemical equation and a net ionic equation for each. Remember, a reaction may be indicated by the formation of a precipitate, color change, or the formation of gas.

Record the good numbers of the precipitates you chose for your equations.
(Co(No3)2+6H2O)+(Na3PO4+12H2O)Well A1 (Cu(NO3)2+3H2O )+(Na3PO4+12H2O)Well B1 (Fe(NO3)3+9H2)+(Na3PO4+12H2O)Well C1 (Ba(NO3)2) )+(Na3PO4+12H2O)Well D1 (Ni(NO3)2+6H2O)+(Na3PO4+12H2O)Well E1 (Co(No3)2+6H2O)+(NaHCO3)Well A5 Cu(NO3)2+3H2O)+(NaHCO3)Well B5 (Fe(NO3)3+9H2)+(NaHCO3)Well C5 (Ba(NO3)2) )+(NaHCO3)Well D5 (Ni(NO3)2+6H2O)+(NaHCO3).
To wrap things up, I found this lab to be easy but confusing at the same time. I am not sure my reactions were all correct because I thought there were supposed to be some that were insoluble, however, I observed reactions occur every time. I would suggest maybe providing better rules for the solubility table because I was a little bit confused with that at first as well. I enjoyed doing this lab, as I do every one, but there were parts of it that just confused me.