I am in a beginning Chemistry class and we conducted an experiment where we separated a mixture of sodium chloride and calcium carbonate by dissolving it into DI water and then filtering out the solid left-overs. My question is, why is using DI water so important, what if we used regular tap water? Would it affect the separation of the two compounds?
2006-09-07 06:35:54 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
DI water (deionized water) not only has impurities filtered out, but it also has ions removed. The pure water does not conduct electricity because there are no ions to allow electrons to flow. Therefore, the DI water will not add any other unaccounted for reactions to the experiment.
2006-09-07 06:58:45 · answer #1 · answered by ironbrew 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
DI water is strictly H2O. Tap water has minerals and all kinds of weird stuff in it that can mess with the chemicals you are trying to work with. Some of the things in tapwater might mix with the chemicals you are trying to separate. Or something might act as a catalyst. You never know so it is best to use pure H2O
2006-09-07 06:40:11 · answer #2 · answered by siropson 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
DI water has all of the impurities removed and thus it will react with repeatable results anywhere in the world or space for that matter. Regular tap water has any number of contaminates that can affect the outcome of a reaction.
2006-09-07 06:39:37 · answer #3 · answered by sprcpt 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
DI water has all the chemicals taken out of it. Regular tap water has many chemicals and elements in it.
Your city has a ppm allowance of all chemicals in water. With this, may notice that some things are harder to dissolve in tap water because those elements are already there.
For your experiment to be valid, you need to make sure that there are no factors that could interfere with your tests.
Many H.S. teachers overlook the fact that their experiments could be flawed because they wash their beakers in regular tap water.
2006-09-07 06:48:31 · answer #4 · answered by tristan-adams 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Since tap water contains charged particles (ions) that could affect the action of the chemicals in the experiment, you would not be able to know what caused the change - it would be adding another causal element to the mix and therefore rendering your conclusions uncertain as to what caused what effects.
2006-09-07 06:39:08 · answer #5 · answered by LisaT 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
normal tap water is not pure at all. I mean it is good enough to drink, but it is not pure enough for chemical reactions.
also, its content in various chemicals varies, so even if you knew what it contained on a Monday september 4th after having analysed it, and adjusted your reaction formulae to take this into account, this would probably not work on Thursday 7th because the water would have changed a bit.
2006-09-07 06:40:33 · answer #6 · answered by AntoineBachmann 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tap water isn't pure enough. You want to eliminate (or reduce as much as possible) any effect the "stuff" in tap water might have on your experiment.
2006-09-07 06:42:11 · answer #7 · answered by . 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
tap water contains a lot of other minerals and chemicals and other stuff that could interfere with the experiment. in fact, water itself does not conduct electricity. it is the other stuff in impure water that does.
2006-09-07 06:38:33 · answer #8 · answered by dan 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
its pure there ar no other chemicals in it like tap water
2006-09-07 06:38:39 · answer #9 · answered by beth_6953 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
so that the stuff in the none DI water doesnt react with your reagents
2006-09-07 06:41:35 · answer #10 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋