So, What Is That Formula?

Problem: Iron can form two different compounds with chlorine, iron (II) chloride and iron Safety Protection (III) chloride. In this experiment you will observe the reaction of iron with copper (II) chloride solution. Your problem is to determine whether the iron chloride  Safety glasses produced is iron (II) chloride or iron (III) chloride. Hair tied back Procedure:  Lab apron  Make a solution by adding approximately 2 grams of copper (II) chloride  Closed-toed shoes dihydrate and 15 ml of water. Use a stirring rod to make sure all of the Gloves solid crystals have dissolved.  Obtain two clean, dry nails. Use a piece of sandpaper to make the surface of the nails shiny. Place the nails in the copper (II) chloride solution. Leave the nails undisturbed for approximately 20 minutes. During that time, you should see the formation of copper in the beaker. At the same time, some of the iron will react.  Use tongs to carefully pick up the nails, one at a time. Use the wash bottle to rinse any remaining copper from the nails before removing them completely. If necessary, use a stirring rod to scrape any copper from the nails. Set the nails aside to dry on a paper towel.  Carefully decant (pour off the liquid only from a container that holds both solid and liquid) the liquid from the solid. Pour the liquid into another beaker (not down the sink) so that in case some of the solid is poured out, you can retrieve it.  After decanting, rinse the solid again with about 10 ml of distilled water. Decant again. Repeat the rinse and decant 3 more times.  Wash the solid in the beaker with about 10 ml of 1 M hydrochloric acid. Decant again. Finally, wash the solid one more time with 10 ml of distilled water and decant.  After the final wash and decant, place the beaker with the copper in a drying oven. Be sure your beaker has some identification so that you can retrieve it the following day.

Equipment Available:  beakers  water bottle  stirring rod  tongs  balance  sandpaper  drying oven

Lab Report: Your lab report should consist of the following:  data table with all measurements taken in the experiment  ALL calculations involved in your experiment in words and with the numbers  final formula of the iron chloride compound

Disposal: All solutions should be poured into the waste beaker in the front of the room. Iron nails should be returned to the instructor. Copper should be placed in the container labeled copper.