The Copper Cycle
In this lab, we changed copper into various forms using different chemicals and chemical reactions. The purpose of this lab is to demonstrate that the product of a chemical reaction depends on what is present at the time of that reaction. This lab also displays how matter cannot be created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction. In a lab, you must always make safety a priority in case of an emergency. In our lab, we made sure to wear closed-toed shoes as well as goggles at all times. We also performed part of our experiment in a fume hood in order to protect ourselves from any potentially dangerous fumes. We made sure not to touch the hotplate, and also to use tongs when picking up a hot beaker. In order to create successful chemical reactions, we followed the procedures properly. We started with a small amount of cooper powder in a beaker, and added nitric acid to it while the beaker was under a fume hood. We removed the beaker as soon as it was safe to and next we added 25mL of water to the current blue solution. We then added sodium hydroxide to the beaker and then proceeded to place the beaker on to a hotplate and stir the solution with a stirring rod. We then removed the beaker with tongs off of the hotplate and filtered the solution with a filter paper and funnel. The next day, after the solid had dried onto the filter paper, we scraped the solid off and into the beaker with a spatula. We then added sulfuric acid and zinc, respectively, into the beaker. We stirred the solution and our final step was getting rid of the liquid waste and observing the copper powder at the bottom of our beakers. We noticed that although we performed many different chemical reactions on the copper, it never changed elements. The copper cycle supports the claim that copper is an element. Although it the copper changed color and state, it never disappeared or went away, it was there the entire time. If you mix nickel and hydrochloric acid, it produces water, nickel