Ideal Gas Laws
Avogadro's Law

| CONCEPTS | EXPERIMENT |

Concepts

In the previous experiments, you have examined two important gas laws. Boyle's Law states that the product of the pressure and volume of a gas is a constant for a constant amount of gas and temperature. Charles's Law (sometimes called the Gay-Lussac Law) states that the volume of a gas is directly proportional to the temperature of the gas, provided the amount of gas and pressure are held constant.

In this experiment you will examine a third important gas law: Avogadro's Law.

Experiment

Objectives

• Determine how the amount of gas in a fixed volume at a fixed pressure and temperature depends upon the identity of the gas.
• Determine molar volume and the molar concentration of a gas at STP.

The experimental apparatus consists of a glass bulb which will be evacuated and then filled with a gas at standard temperature and pressure (STP).

For these experiments STP corresponds with 1 atm pressure (760 torr) and 0 ^oC. The bulb will be weighed when evacuated and when filled with a gas at STP. The difference in mass is the mass of the gas itself. The volume of the bulb is 500.0 mL.

This measurement will be performed for several different gases. For each gas, experimentally determine the mass of the gas at STP and calculate the following properties.

Density
The density, r, is the ratio of the mass to the volume: r = m/V

Molar Density
The molar density is the ratio of the moles of gas to the volume: r_m = n/V

The number of moles, n, is the mass of the gas divided by the molecular weight, Mw, of the gas: n = m/Mw

The molecular weight, Mw, is the mass of one mole of the gas.

Molar Volume
The molar volume, V_m, is the volume of one mole of gas and is the reciprocal of the molar density: V_m = 1/r_m = V/n

Experimental Details

In practice, this experiment would be performed in the following fashion. The bulb would be connected to a manifold to which a tank of the gas of interest, a vacuum pump, and a manometer were attached. If gas were being added, the valve to the vacuum pump would be closed and the valve to the gas tank would be gently opened to vent gas into the system. Gas would be added until the desired pressure was displayed on the manometer. Gas could be removed from the bulb by closing the valve to the gas tank and gently opening the valve to the vacuum pump. It is possible to completely evacuate the bulb using the vacuum pump. After the bulb contains the desired pressure of gas, the bulb would be removed from the manifold and placed on a balance. The mass of the bulb containing gas minus the mass of the evacuated bulb is the mass of gas.

The open end of the manometer would be connected to the manifold; thus the pressure recorded by the manometer is the pressure in the manifold and thus the bulb, which is open to the manifold.

In this simulated experiment, the pressure and mass are measured simultaneously (even though this is not really possible in practice).

The glass bulb has a volume of 500.0 mL. The temperature of the gas is held at 0 ^oC. You will need to add sufficient gas to produce a pressure of exactly 760 torr (1 atm). This temperature and pressure correspond to STP.

When a new gas is selected, the bulb is evacuated to remove the old gas. Each gas is given a color to illustrate its presence in the bulb. In reality, all of the gases used in this experiment are colorless except chlorine, which has green color.

Questions

After performing the measurements with each gas, answer the following questions.

1. How does the density of the gas at STP depend upon the identity of the gas?
2. How does the molar concentration at STP depend upon the identity of the gas?
3. How does the molar volume at STP depend upon the identiy of the gas?