Experiment 5: Le Chatelier’s Principle
Introduction:
In this lab we applied Le Chatelier’s principle to five different chemical reactions and predicted
what equilibria were occurring and how Le Chatelier’s principle applies.
Experimental:
First for our solubility of Calcium Hydroxide, we added 5 mL of 6M NaOH to a small beaker. To
this we added 5 mL of 1M Ca(NO3) and after stirring the solution a white precipitate formed.
After gravity filtration we washed the remaining solid with 5 mL of DI water. Then we used a
spatula to remove the wet precipitate from the filter paper. After letting this solid suspend in 10
mL of DI water it formed an opaque suspension. When we added 2 mL of HCl and stirred, in
addition we added 5 mL of 6M NaOH.
For the Iron-Thiocyanate complex we labeled 3 small tubes with 1,2,3. We added 20 mL of DI
water to a 50 mL beaker plus 20 drops of .1M Fe(NO3)3 and 20 drops of .1M KSCN and stirred.
Then we added 3 mL of this solution to each test tube. To test tube 1 we added 20 drops of .1M
Fe(NO3)3. To test tube 2 we added 20 drops of .1M KSCN. Lastly to test tube 3 we added 20
drops of DI water which made it the control tube. We compared the colors of the three tubes
and recorded our observations.
For the Nickel Ammonia Complex we added 10 drops of .2M Ni(NO3)2 to a clean test tube. Then
we added 6M NH3 until the color changed in intensity. To this we added drops of HCl until the
color changed again. We recorded all of the color changes.
For the Acid, Base, and Methyl Orange (MO) we marked two small beakers with acid and base.
Then we added 10 mL of DI water and 4 drops of HCl to the acid beaker. Further we added 10
mL of DI water and 4 drops of 6M NaOH to the beaker marked base. Then we added 1 mL of DI
water to a clean test tube and added 4 drops of methyl orange indicator solution and 2 drops of
