Experiment 16: Percentage Composition of Magnesium Oxide 2. When magnesium is he

Question

Experiment 16: Percentage Composition of Magnesium Oxide 2. When magnesium is heated in air, most of the magnesium reacts with the oxygen of the air, but a significant amount does react with the nitrogen of the air. If water had not been added to your initial product, a mixture of magnesium oxide and magnesium nitride would have resulted. What error in the percentage magnesium determined for your product would have resulted if a portion of the product were magnesium nitride instead of magnesium oxide? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

2. In the reaction of magnesium with oxygen, we get magnesium oxide MgO. If the controlled the reaction also yields nitride by the reaction of magensium with nitrogen, Mg3N2. In the determination of percentage of magnesium by this method, If some of the magnesium has reacted to form magnesium nitride along with the magnesium oxide, the yield of the final product oxide would be lower. This would thus give an error in the percentage of magesium present. The percentage thus determined would be lower than the actual value. Hence addition of water is necessary to avoid the formation of nitride in the reaction.

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