Objectives of the Course

Four of the most obvious objectives of a physical chemistry laboratory course are:

(1) to allow students the chance to apply in practical laboratory experiments concepts previously presented (often in a rather abstract way) in the physical chemistry lecture course.

(2) to present new concepts in physical chemistry for which there is insufficient time in the lecture course.

(3) to familiarize students with instruments and techniques used to determine physical chemical quantities, and

(4) to give students confidence in their ability to measure, manipulate and evaluate quantitative physical chemical data.

General Information
In order to minimize mistakes and to save time,  it is essential that you come the the laboratory prepared to perform that day's experiment.  Read the background material and  procedure.  Don't waste lab time performing tasks that could have been done before coming to lab, such as calculating the amounts of reagents needed to prepare solutions described in the procedure.

To receive a grade all of the assigned experiments must be performed.  Attendance is mandatory. You will perform most of the experiments with a partner, and both partners must work on all phases of the experiment.

The laboratory reports are an individual effort. That is, each student must write his/her own reports. You can collaborate with your partner on calculations, data analysis, etc., but the final report, including mathcad documents,  must be your own work. 

Grading

Notebook	10%
Reports	90%

Texts

Most of  the experiments are taken from the books below which are on reserve in the Library. The rest of the experiments will be found in handouts furnished by the instructor.  

1.  Physical Chemistry, Sime, Saunders, 1990

2.  Experimental Physical Chemistry, Matthews, Halpern, Prentice Hall, 1997

 The Experiments
 

1.  Heat Capacity Ratio of Gases. Procedure

2.   Bomb Calorimetry, Heat of Combustion.  See instructions. , Here is a useful animation

3.   Adsorption of Acetic Acid by a Solid. Sime, pp528-533..

4.   Viscosity of Solutions of Macromolecules, Sime, pp. 522-527.

5.  Surface tension of Liquids.  Halpern, Experiment 16. ( use the Wilhelmy slide method).     Additional Instructions.

6. Liquid-Vapor Equilibrium in an Azeotropic Mixture. Sime, pp. 449-460. For a sample                  Mathcad document for the Van Laar calculations, click here for MC7, MC2001.

7.  Mutual Solubilities of Liquids in a Binary Two-Phase System, Halpern, Experiment 10..  See also                Physical Chemistry, 8th Edition, by P. W. Atkins, section 6.5.

8.  Thermodynamic Data from Electromotive Force Measurements. Sime, pp. 566-569.

9.  The Effect of Ionic Strength on an Equilibrium Constant. Procedure to be provided

10.  Activities of a Solvent from Freezing Point Measurements. Sime, pp510-513.

Laboratory Notebook

Each student is required to have a bound laboratory notebook, which will be periodically reviewed by me during the semester. The notebook must be turned in at the end of the semester. All experimental data must be entered directly in the notebook.

Notebook Format

1) The pages will be numbered consecutively, and under no circumstances will pages be torn out.      

2) Reserve the first few pages for a TABLE OF CONTENTS.

3) The first page of any experiment should contain the full title of the experiment, and your partner’s name. You can assign a number to each experiment as well.

4) All other pages in the notebook should contain in the upper right-hand corner, the experiment title or number, and the date on which the entries on that page were made.

5) All relevant information (data, comments, deviations from the procedure in the text), must be recorded directly in the notebook in ink.

6) Enter experimental data in TABLE form, and clearly indicate the units in which each quantity is expressed. Include the estimated possible error of each type of recorded measurement.

7) Further suggestions regarding the notebook can be found in Sime, pp. 68-70.

Reports

One report must be submitted for each of the eight experiments listed above. Most of your grade will  be based on the reports.      

Reports will be due on the Friday of the week after the completion of the experiment. Reports submitted on time will be worth a maximum of 10, points.  A penalty of one point per day will be charged for each day the report is late.

Report Format

Reports should be well organized and concise. They should be submitted on 8.5x11" paper, well stapled together. Your name, the dates when the experiment was performed, the date of the report and the name of your partner should appear in the upper right-hand corner of the first page. 

A good discussion of report writing can be found in Chapter 8 of Sime.

Use Mathcad for calculations and graphs.  

Your report should contain eight sections:

1. Title.  Include: Title, date and name of lab partner.

2. Introduction. State the purpose of the experiment.  Be specific. Identify the system studied. Summarize the mathematical equations to be used.

3. Procedure. This should include a reference to the source from which the procedure was taken. It is not necessary to repeat the material in the text; however, any deviations from the procedure in the reference should be described.

4. Results.  Include graphs and tables of data, and calculations.   Both graphs and tables should have titles.  Clearly label table entries and graph axes, including units.  Use legends to distinguish between different sets of data plotted on the same graph.  If appropriate, include in your graphs curves calculated from theoretical relationships or from curve fitting routines, such as least squares fitting. Use Mathcad for calculations, unless instructed otherwise.  Make your Mathcad documents as clear and easy to read as possible.  Define all variables used in the calculations. 

5. Conclusions.  Summarize your results in tabular form.  Values should be accompanied by estimated errors, if appropriate. Use Word to prepare tables.  Answer any question found in the instructions in this section.

6. Discussion.  Compare your results with literature values and report the difference as a % difference.  Be sure to cite your literature sources.  One method of citation is to use a number enclosed in parentheses to refer to a a work listed in the "References" section at the end of the report. Discuss discrepancies between your results and the literature values in terms of estimated error (e.g. the probable propagated error or 95% confidence level).

Comment on possible sources of error in the experiment.

 7. References.  Include a numbered list of all references cited.   

8.Error calculations.   In some experiments, you will be required to calculate the probable propagated error in your results.  In these cases, Be sure to define the error in each independent variable. Click here for a demonstration of the use of Mathcad in calculating probable propagated error.

  

Comments on Treatment of Experimental Data

You will be expected to show proper respect for significant figures in your reports.

Some useful suggestions on data presentation and graphing are found in Sime, pp. 160-165. Adherence to these will add clarity to your report.

 

 

 

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