Hello. My group and I did an experiment weeks ago that involved 0.75 grams of magnesium reacting with 20 mL of 1.0M HCl. There was an excess of magnesium metal in the beaker.
It resulted in a change of pH from 1 to 9.1 and the mass of the system decreased by 0.643 grams. By balancing the 3 equations and using molar masses, We're still missing like 0.5 g of the total mass loss due to the emission of gases (no lid on top of the beaker when it reacted).
My three chemical equations were:
Mg
(s) + 2HCl
(aq) --> MgCl
2 (aq) + H
2 (g)MgO
(s) + H
2O --> Mg(OH)
2 (aq) Mg
(s) + 2H
2O
(l) --> Mg(OH)
2 (s) + H
2 (g)Keeping in mind that I only reacted HCl with Mg. What am I missing? There was also a funny smell during the reaction. It can't be hydrogen since that is not odorous, I think... What could it be?
Any hints/solutions/logical ideas will be very helpful for my group. Thanks a ton! Justin