Sucrose And Hydrochloric Acid Lab Report

At first glance, all the substances may have been considered to be similar, as they are all white substances that are generally fine powder or small crystals. However, the lab revealed substances C: citric acid, D: sucrose, and H: benzoic acid to be covalent compounds, while the remaining substances to be all ionic.
The previously stated covalent compounds all were found to have low relative melting points when heating them on a hot plate, but they had mixed results to their solubilities: citric acid and sucrose were found to be soluble in water, while benzoic acid was not soluble in water. The situation was reversed when using ethanol: citric acid dissolved slightly while sucrose did not at all, and benzoic acid was able to dissolve. The differences are caused due to ethanol being less polar than water. Based on the results with water, sucrose and citric acid are likely polar molecules because they were able to dissolve, while benzoic acid is likely nonpolar due to it not …show more content…
The less-polar ethanol molecules had a more difficult time creating intermolecular bonds with the polar molecules of sucrose and citric acid, due to the hydrogen and/or dipole-dipole bonding within those compounds themselves, thus explaining the insolubility of those compounds with the ethanol. In addition, the benzoic acid, being nonpolar, had an easier time dissolving with the less-polar ethanol due to the weaker intermolecular force of attraction within the ethanol. The three compounds also were the three out of four to melt when heated on the hot plate. The benzoic acid was the first of the three to melt, and the second overall, which makes sense if one considers that it was determined to be nonpolar, which would mean it would have a very weak intermolecular force of