Cetyl Alcohol Lab

Members -Lydia Cline
                 -Kristen Rispoli

Group Job- Alternated between all the jobs.

Purpose- To figure out the temperature at which the phase of matter of cetyl alcohol changes

Materials-Hot plate, beaker, tap water, ice, thermometer, cetyl alcohol 

 Procedure

1) Make a 70 degrees Celsius water bath using a 400mL beaker and a hot plate.  Make an ice bath using another 400mL beaker, using tap water and ice.

2) Place the cetyl alcohol test tube in the hot water bath and take the temperature.  This will be time=0

3) Continue to take the temperature every 30 seconds until the temperature reaches 60 degrees Celsius.  Remove the test tube from the hot water bath and place it in the ice water bath while continuing to take the temperature at 30 second intervals until the original starting temperature is reached. 

4) Create a time versus temperature graph of your data on graph paper.

Our Data



Conclusion
Based off the data we collected, the melting point of cetyl alcohol is around 48 degrees Celsius.  43 degrees Celsius is probably the melting point because around this point, the rate at which the temperature is increasing starts to decrease and slightly plateau.  We cannot see the boiling point on this graph.  The reason why we cannot see the boiling point on this graph is because as soon as the cetyl alcohol reached a temperature above 60 degrees celsius, we put it into the ice bath, not allowing it to reach the boiling point.  After doing some research, I found that the boiling point of cetly alcohol is 334 degress Celsius.  Some possible sources of error during this lab was when the smart board turned off/ went blank.  This threw off the timing of the temperatures.  We also had a little bit of trouble maintaining a 70 degree Celsius water bath.  Most of the time it was just a little under or a little over.  It was also somewhat hard to keep exact time due to multi-tasking.  A way we could improve this lab is to have more people in our group...even though we worked in a group of two by choice.  Another way to imrpove this activity is to have individual timers, so we could easily see them, and keep exact time.  Another is that we could take the temperature of the cold water before placing the cetyl alcohol into it.  Lastly, we could use magnifying glasses in order to get a more accurate measure of the temperature.

Link to the boiling point of cetyl alcohol boiling point web site
http://chemicalland21.com/industrialchem/solalc/CETYL%20ALCOHOL.htm