Rhea P.

asked • 03/25/21

Hess' Law for the enthalpy change of reaction of the decomposition of sodium bicarbonate

I am currently writing a lab report that is about the Hess' law for the thermal decomposition of sodium hydrogen carbonate to for sodium carbonate. We did this by reacting sodium hydrogen carbonate with HCl as well as sodium carbonate with HCl. We found the values for those reactions using q=mcΔT to find the heat energy, then used ΔH=q/mol to find the enthalpy change. Then we applied Hess' law (simultaneous equations) to find the enthalpy change of reaction of decomposition. However, the value I got so far is +10.17, which is quite far off from the literature value from what I've heard. Please explain what I did wrong. Thank you so much!


My working out:

NaHCO3 - I used 25ml HCl and 1g of sodium bicarbonate, temperature change was -2.5

q=mcΔT

q= (25)(4.18)(-2.5)

q= -0.26125kJ


ΔH=q/mol

ΔH= -0.26125/0.011904

ΔH= -21.9468 kJ/mol


Na2CO3 - I used 25ml HCl and 1g of sodium carbonate, temperature change was 2.9

q=mcΔT

q= (25)(4.18)(2.9)

q= 0.30305kJ


ΔH=q/mol

ΔH= 0.30305/0.009435

ΔH= 32.1199 kJ/mol


Hess' law -

  1. NaHCO3 + HCl --> NaCl + H2O + CO2 ΔH = -21.95
  2. Na2CO3 + 2HCl --> NaCl + H2O + CO2 ΔH = 32.12 (flipped)


equation 1 - equation 2 = enthalpy of decomposition


-21.95-(-32.12) = 10.17 kJ/mol




J.R. S.

tutor
Was the ∆H for Na2CO3 positive or negative? In your initial calculations, you have it as positive, but when you did equation 1 - equation 2, you made it negative.
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03/25/21

J.R. S.

tutor
Oh..I just now noticed that you flipped equation 2. Never mind.
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03/25/21

Rhea P.

Yeah, I flipped equation 2 for Hess’ law. But when subtract those together the value is much lower than the literature value that is supposed to be around 45kJ/mol.
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03/25/21

J.R. S.

tutor
See my answer below. You also need to multiply your first equation by 2.
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03/25/21

1 Expert Answer

By:

Rhea P.

That was also the value I got when I calculated it for the first time. However, what I don’t understand is why this reaction is exothermic when decomposition reactions should be endothermic :(
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03/25/21

J.R. S.

tutor
Not necessarily. The decomposition of sodium bicarbonate in aqueous solution is most definitely exothermic. Not sure where you got the impression that decomposition reactions should be endothermic.???
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03/25/21

Rhea P.

I was researching online and saw that thermal decompositions were endothermic because bonds were broken. Thank you so much for explaining this to me!
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03/25/21

Rhea P.

Sorry I have another question. How would I justify it in my hypothesis? Still not quite sure what the reasoning behind this particular decomposition reaction being exothermic. Also, the sodium bicarbonate I used was not aqueous, it was solid powder form.
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03/25/21

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