Chemistry Track

CHEMISTS HAVE available a large number of tools for determining the identity of unknown substances. Some involve fundamental chemical principles such as solubility and reactions that change the color of a substance, while others use sophisticated instrumentation. Students will have the opportunity to apply both types of techniques to the analysis of an unknown sample of limestone. By measuring the concentration of calcium and magnesium in the rock sample, we will be able to determine whether it is calcite or dolomite. Comparisons will be made of the different methods for both ease of analysis and accuracy. The first method will employ a precipitation reaction and a redox titration to determine the percentage of calcium, while the second will exploit our atomic absorption spectrophotometer to simultaneously determine calcium and magnesium.

Instructor

• Dr. David Lever, Associate Professor, OWU Department of Chemistry