Magnesium Reaction With Oxygen

Magnesium reaction with Oxygen.

Crucible with the lid on was weighted, mass 1 – 18.43g.

Magnesium inside the crucible with the lid on was weighted, mass 2 – 19.09g.

Crucible with the lid on, containing magnesium, was placed on the pipe clay triangle. Bunsen burner was lit with gentle blue flame, later increased to a roaring flame (with the air hole fully opened) to get reaction going. Soon the crucible heated up, the lid was lifted gently using tongs, to allow oxygen to get in and reaction to happen. At the beginning the base was just glowing, before the magnesium was hot enough. Later on when the reaction was in progress, every time the lid was lifted and magnesium was reacting with oxygen, more glowing and a little sparkle was seen, as well as some gas escaping. If the lid was left off for too long, magnesium would ignite. When the reaction was completed the magnesium would no longer ignite when exposed to oxygen. The product after burning magnesium with oxygen was still solid, but changed the color to white/grey. The crucible with the product was left to cool down and after weighted, mass 3 – 19.44g.

Mass 2 (crucible with lid and magnesium inside) – 19.09g

Mass 3 (crucible with lid and magnesium oxide inside) – 19.44g

Mass of the oxygen = mass 3 – mass 2

This shows that if 48g of Mg would react with 32g of O2 then the maximum yield would be 80g of MgO.

If 48g of Mg produces 80g of MgO, than 1g of Mg produces: 80.6 ????48.6 ???? = 1.66g of MgO.

So if started with 0.66g of Mg, this means 0.66g x 1.66g = 1.0956g of MgO should have been produced. (theoretical yield)

The percentage yield of the product (MgO) is quite high, this shows that experiment was 92.18% efficient. However, in any chemical processes is really hard to get 100% of the product, because of many reasons.