Exercise E1 Water of Hydration Equipment: Balance, ring stand, Bunsen burner, clay triangle, crucible tongs hemicals: Cobalt II Chloride hydrated, unknown Hydrate, distilled water Materials: Evaporating Dish, porcelain Crucible, Beaker for carrying the Crucible Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to study the properties of hydrate and to determine the amount of water present in an unknown hydrate. You may also be asked to find the number of moles of the water associated with a single mole of an ionic salt. Before You Start: Some ionic compounds have molecules of water within their ionic crystals. These molecules of water are loosely bound and can often be removed by heating. Such compounds are called hydrates. Thus, these compounds have two different types of solids; a hydrated form and an anhydrous form. The anhydrous form and the hydrated form often have different appearance and sometimes even a different color Procedure: Part A: Behavior of a true hydrate 1. 2. Place a few crystals of Cobalt (II) Chloride hydrate, CoCl26H-O, in an 3. Gently heat the crystals for 2-3 minutes. Heating gently is very important. Record your results on your data sheet. evaporating dish. High heat causes unwanted reactions to occur. Observe all color changes. NOTE: any color changes that occur are due to the loss or gaining of water Allow the dish to cool for 1-2 minutes. 4. 5. 6. Add a few milliliters of water to the dish. The residue should dissolve in the water Note any color change 7. Do you think hydration is reversible here? 103 Solution The colour of CoCl2 .6H2O is dark pink before heating. As it is heated at first the coordinated water comes out and makes the salt wet. then the water evaporates and forms a blue solid of anhydrous cobalt chloride. the hydration process is reversible. when water is added to the anhydrous salt the crystalline water coordinate again to form Co(H2O)6.Cl2. hence it also gets back the dark pink colour of cobalt chloride hexahydrate. .