30/4/2013 Week 3 Tuesday Period 3

A lot of research into the volume contraction tells me that you can possibly effect the measurement of volume contraction one or two ways; either by changing the temperature of the mixture components to affect the hydrogen bonding or by using different ratios of water to an alkanol (with the different ratios I can also modify it to use different types of alkanols as their chemical structure will have an effect on how strong there dipole-dipole forces are).

I have devised possible hypothesis to base this EEI on all under the topic of volume contraction.

Hypothesis 1:
The higher the ratio of water to ethanol (I've chosen the most basic alcohol to test) the larger the volume contraction will be.

The hydrogen bond is affected by temperature and pressure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_bond). Therefore by choosing a mixture ratio of water to ethanol that inhibits a large volume contraction I could then  base an EEI around how stable the volume contraction remains under temperature change. I would further have to research how temperature effects hydrogen bonding as hydrogen bonding is what causes the volume to contract when mixed.

Hypothesis 2:
The higher the temperature of the water and ethanol mixture the less stable the contraction will be and the volume contraction would be less.

Again I could test how volume contraction is affected by using different types of alkanols such as; ethanol, propanol, butanol etc.. but I will further develop the above hypotheses and make a choice on which one I will base the EEI on.

This diagram demonstrates how the water molecule is bonding to the ethanol. Here is the link where I found the image along with further information on hydrogen bonding with different alkanols. http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/162othermolecules.html

29/04/2013 Week 3 Monday Period 6

I found a great link to a website where it discusses the volume contraction  of water and ethanol mixture with in depth reference to  Mass %, Molar % and Volume %. The information also has results recorded at certain temperatures of water used in the mixture, with this in mind different temperature of water or alcohol could be tested as a variable in the experiment as heat is known to effect the strength of the hydrogen bonding.

http://koustubh.hubpages.com/hub/water-ethanol

By possibly using different temperature substances the volume contraction could be affected? Possible Hypothesis for the EEI or research question.

29/04/2013 Week 3 Monday Period 5

After further research into EEI's testing the volume contraction of water and alkanols results suggest that it is all dependent on the hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonding is stronger in that of H₂O when compared to alkanols, therefore when a mixture is created dipole-dipole forces tend to make
water and alkanol mixture molecules smaller resulting in the decreased volume.

To test the parameters of the forces and bonding of water when combined with alcohol I could use
different quantities and ratios of both water and alcohol to see which ratio achieves the best  volume
contraction.

27/04/2013 Week 2 Saturday Home 2

I did some further reading and the Volume contraction is due to the strength of the Hydrogen Bonding, one of the chapters we are learning in class which also makes this EEI easier to understand. Later on when I post my background research this topic will be excellent for going into depth with because I already have a background in Organic Chemistry  from Chemistry in year 11.

27/04/2013 Week 2 Saturday Home

I looked at several ideas for a possible EEI such as; The Stability of Vitamin C in solution and the Production of Ginger Beer. I did find later or a more suitable EEI that looks great and can provide a lot of depth, this was Alcohol-Water Mixture: Concentration and the contractions of Volumes. This EEI explains how the combined volume of ethanol and water is less than the separate initial volumes, this change in volume is known as Volume Contraction.

22/04/2013 Week 2 Monday Period 6

Chemistry EEI was distributed today. Task sheet and EEI ideas here http://ssccchemistry.wikispaces.com/home

1      Length of report 2000-2500 words –discussion, conclusion, evaluation, recommendations