Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis Lab Report

Title: Make it descriptive not creative. “The Amazing World of Chemical Reactions” is creative, but unacceptable. “Chemical Reaction Lab” is not particularly creative, nor is it descriptive. Underneath the title state the names of the people who worked on the lab, the name and address of the school and the date that the lab report was written.

Introduction: Start with a discussion of the concepts of both qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis and the general techniques used to accomplish each. Be sure to cite your sources of information. State the three goals of the experiment.

Materials and Methods: Each goal from the introduction should be addressed in this section. There will therefore be 3 sections to your procedure – one for each goal. Start each procedure section with a 1 – 2 sentence summary of the procedure and then follow up with the details of each procedure. Do not list materials/equipment rather you will include the materials and equipment in the procedure. Do not write the procedures as numbered steps – the materials and methods section must be in paragraph form. The procedures in this section should reflect what you actually did, not what you had planned to do. You do not need to state safety procedures.

Results: Remember that this section must be in paragraph form. You may include tables or figures, but they are to be referred to in the text and then included as separate tables and figures. Just as you had three sections of procedure, there should be three sections of results. The qualitative analysis section should contain descriptive data for each reaction performed. For example if you add 8 drops of HCl to the unknown sample and a white precipitate forms, record that information. If no precipitate forms state that also. Essentially the results section for the qualitative analysis should be a restatement of each procedural step from the materials and methods section, but with a record of observations as to what occurred after completing each step. You can include errors or problems that occurred but do not discuss the implications of the errors – save that for the discussion.

For the quantitative analysis section, you should also record any descriptive data that occurred during any step along with errors or problems that may have occurred with any particular procedure. Most importantly, mass data should be recorded in this section.

No calculations or analysis of any of the results should appear in the results section. Save that for the discussion.

Discussion: The discussion section should contain three portions – each one addressing each of the three objectives. For the qualitative analysis section, the chemical reaction for each step should be described in equation form and its significance should be discussed. The effect that any errors or procedural problems may have had on the results should be noted here as well. Finally, be sure to state your final conclusion as to the composition of the unknown solution. For the quantitative analysis section you can describe the chemical equation that occurred for your precipitation reaction and the effect that any errors during the procedures may have had on the results. Then demonstrate the calculations (be sure to follow significant figures!) involving the data. Calculations of percent error (which is a discussion of the third objective) should be included

Literature Cited: Any references to material from your textbook, lab handouts or personal communication during class should be listed in this section. Here are some examples of the format you can use for citing personal communication or the textbook. I’m not terribly worried about format, but author(s), date first is what I’d like to see.

Danch, James. 2013. Personal communication. Class discussion of acid base chemistry, Colonia High School.

Zumdahl and Zumdahl. 2007. Chemistry seventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.