How Do You Calculate FeSCN2+ Concentration in an Equilibrium Lab?

[xoilovemeryl]

Homework Statement

Hi! Okay so I have a question about the calculations for an equilibrium lab I completed. I have the equation

Fe3+ + SCN1- makes FeSCN2+

I know that Fe3+ equals 2.25x10 to the -5 power M and SCN1- equals 0.50 M.

. The attempt at a solution

Would I simply add the 2 together to get FeSCN2+? That seems too easy but it's all I can think of...thanks!

 

[Iodine]

Homework Statement

Hi! Okay so I have a question about the calculations for an equilibrium lab I completed. I have the equation

Fe3+ + SCN1- makes FeSCN2+

I know that Fe3+ equals 2.25x10 to the -5 power M and SCN1- equals 0.50 M.

. The attempt at a solution

Would I simply add the 2 together to get FeSCN2+? That seems too easy but it's all I can think of...thanks!

First of all assume you have 1 litre of sol'n
so you have 2.25x10^-5 mols of Fe3+ and 0.50 mols of SCN-
The Fe3+ is the limitting reagent so you can only get 2.25x10^-5 mols of FeSCN2+.
(Imagine you are making Ham and cheese sandwhiches. You have 20 pieces of cheese and 5 pieces of ham. You can only make 5 sandwhiches. Only instead of cheese it is SCN- and instead of Ham it is Fe3+)
So you have 2.25x10^-5 mols of FeSCN2+ and we assumed we had 1 litre of Fe3+ sol'n and 1 litre of SCN- sol'n. So when we put them together we had 2 litres of sol'n
so the concentration of FeSCN2+ = 2.25x10^-5 mols/2 litres

 

[Borek]

so the concentration of FeSCN2+ = 2.25x10^-5 mols/2 litres

That would mean concentration of Fe³⁺ is zero and stability constant is infinite. So it is not a correct approach.

xoilovemeryl: data you have listed so far is not enough to calculate concentration, it can be only approximated using stoichiometry (as Iodine did), but the value obtained is not the real one. I suppose you had more data to use in your calculations.

--

 

[Yanick]

This was a lab, so just as Borek said, you cannot just assume 1L of each. What if he used 1L of Iron and 10mL of SCN?