When a clean strip of copper metal is immersed in an aqueous silver
CHEMISTRY · Multi-part · AP · Chemistry · Chemical Reactions · Chemical Reactions
Problem
When a clean strip of copper metal is immersed in an aqueous silver(I) nitrate solution, visible changes occur on both the copper strip and in the solution over a period of 24h. Suppose you must design an investigation—using only common laboratory glassware, a balance (±0.01g), filter paper, and distilled water—to determine whether the observed changes are physical or chemical. All quantitative measurements must be completed within 30min after the 24h reaction period ends.
(1) Part 1: (a) Predict two specific macroscopic observations you expect to record after the 24h period that would be relevant to classifying the change.
(2) Part 2: (b) Design a quantitative procedure, limited to the available materials, that would allow you to confirm or refute the classification suggested by your observations in part (a). Be explicit about the data you will gather and how you will process it.
(3) Part 3: (c) Given hypothetical mass data wherein the combined mass of the copper strip and any solid product increases by 0.35g while the mass of the dried filter paper plus collected solid product decreases the aqueous solution mass by an equivalent amount, explain—using the principle of conservation of mass—how these results support your classification of the change type.
(4) Part 4: (d) Discuss one significant limitation of your experimental design and propose an improvement that would reduce its impact on the reliability of the conclusion.