20 January

20 January 2015
Bea

Today's class consisted more of lab work.

The aim of the lab was to find out if solutions of different oxides were acidic or alkaline.
The four oxides we tested were sulphur trioxide, ferric oxide, magnesium oxide, and carbon dioxide.

In order to make the oxides, we had to react substances with oxygen. For some of the substances a higher concentration of oxygen was needed rather than the one found naturally in the air.
After heating the substance using the bunsen burner, the substance was reacted with oxygen in a test tube. After adding water to the test tube, we had a solution of oxides.

To test if the solutions were acidic or alkaline, we added universal indicator to the solutions.
We were able to decipher the acidity of the solutions with varying degrees of success.

Generally a rule could be applied to the oxides.

Non-metals make acidic oxides
Soluble metals make alkaline oxides.

The iron used in the reaction did not make a soluble oxide and therefore it was difficult to obtain results from the experiment.

After the experimental part, we answered questions that related to the experiment including a question that related back to acid rain.