Chemistry
For Chemistry Discussions
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My research question is "How does the size of the transition metal central ion affect the stability (or formation?) of a complex ion?" How can I figure out the stability of a complex ion by using colorimeter readings? Or just in general, what kind of information can I get out of colorimeter readings? I took 8 trials of 5 different metals using the ligand NH3 every time and I got a bunch of graphs out of them (well just three because the last two read 0). I just don't know how to analyse these graphs. Thanks for any help.
Last reply by Hammad, -
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I've been doing my IA and I got feedback from my teacher, but I feel like a lot of it is asking for redundancy. I have some pieces of data that I use as the base of my calculations, then at the end I reference it again to wrap it all up. I have my in text reference when I first give the data, but my teacher says I should cite them again when I restate the data later on. This kind of thing occurs in several places, where she wants me to cite things I've already cited before. In the Data Analysis, we're used to doing all our calculations then doing propagation of uncertainties right afterward, as its own section. Her feedback says to put the propagation of uncert…
Last reply by Kilwee, -
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Hey guys! My chemistry (SL) class has already begun the Internal Assesment and I've chosen to do a database IA. I have found a few databases, and I've already read the exemplars posted on the IB site (there were only 2, I wish there were more). My only problem is that I'm having trouble turning my ideas into reasonable research questions. I'm not asking for a research question, but could you give me some tips on how to turn ideas into viable research questions. So far I've looked into medicinal chemistry and biochemistry and I want to do something related to the structure or drugs but do you think it would be easier if I switched to doing a database IA in organic c…
Last reply by Kilwee, -
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I needed some help in deciding a good topic for a chemistry EE. Till now I've thought of doing it in chromatography and dyes. I thought that the topic of "analysis of hair dyes was overused", so I was thinking of doing something along the lines of: "chromatography of different pen inks", or "analysis of dyes in foods such as ketchup". Thanks.
Last reply by themthem, -
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Hey guys, I desperately need some ideas for a hl chem IA and a chem ee (if possible). I am new to the way IB works so, some things are difficult for me (for example-IA) Thank you IBGRIND
Last reply by kanda_sorata, -
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Hi! I'm planning on testing the BOD of water for my Chemistry HL IA. My school is missing a chemical called Alkaline Iodide Azide. I asked the school and even did my own research on where to get sodium azide but it seems impossible. Also, the incubator reaches only as low as 32 degrees and room temperature is 25 degrees. I require storing the water at 20 degrees but am still finding solutions to this. I thought of using a mixture of potassium iodide and potassium hydroxide with the absence of azide which is required to eliminate nitrite interference with the iodide ions. Anyone out there has any tips? Solutions for me? Recommendations? Or can anyone who h…
Last reply by kanda_sorata, -
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I am basically testing for iron content in different vegetables. I dissolve 30g of each vegetable in sulphuric acid and then titrate it against KMnO4. Basically I need help coming up with a scientific explanation on why I need to keep the mass of the vegetables and sulphuric acid a constant for each experiment. I know it's a dumb question but I just want to be sure and not lose any dumb marks.
Last reply by kanda_sorata, -
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Hello everyone, correct me if I'm wrong: For chemistry and physics, we're required to do 10-20 experiments and write a lab report about them.
Last reply by IJustWanaPass, -
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Hey there chemists! I am doing an esterification reaction for my IA, and in order to determine Kc, I need to find out how much unreacted acid was left over. I would like to avoid the lengthy process of washing and purifying the ester (Christmas soon, little time!) and using that as a determinant. The carboxylic acid and alcohol are the ones left over then. Do you know how I could isolate the acid or the alcohol, to find out its concentration? Thanks a billion!
Last reply by Befuddled, -
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I'm doing my chemistry IA (SL) and my question is how temperature affects the buffer capacity of the citric acid - disodium hydrogen phosphate buffer (citrate-phosphate buffer). I've done the temperatures 10, 25, 40, 55, 70 degrees celsius, and I've done a number of trials for each (5+) and I've been looking at how many millilitres of NaOH it takes to break buffer capacity (so on a titration curve, the point when it starts to shoot up). The millilitres it takes for each of the temperatures all seem to be the same, so in conclusion, my data presents no trend in results. There also don't seem to be any literature values that I can find to compare this data to. I was …
Last reply by kw0573, -
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Hi guys, I have performed an experiment on enthalpy change of neutralization, and I'm wondering which uncertainties do I have to calculate and how, because I'm so confused and our teacher did not give us guidelines. Can anyone please help? Thanks in advance.
Last reply by IBlearner73, -
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How strict is the 6-12 page limit for science IA's? Will the moderator just stop reading at 12 pages and pretend like the rest doesn't exist. And do title pages in that page limit?
Last reply by ABKor752, -
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So I was thinking about preparing esters for my IA. My research question is To determine the trend of solubility of water in water as the carbon chain increases. I am wondering if the IA topic is too simple. I need people's honest opinion. I was wondering if the solubility in water affects the commercial production of esters
Last reply by GayatriSom123, -
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Hello! I am an HL chemistry student who is looking for a relatively easy but interesting chemistry IA topic, and it seems like I found one - freezing point of depression of water. This topic has actually fascinated me for many years, so it will be quite interesting to investigate it. However, I am not sure how to proceed. First of all, I do not know which independent and dependent variables I should choose. Here is an approach I have been thinking of: Independent variable: the concentration of a certain salt (for example, NaCl) dissolved water. I can use 5 different concentrations of NaCl. Dependent variable: time taken for ice cubes to melt. Method: co…
Last reply by kw0573, -
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Hey guys, So for my IA, I'd like to determine the effect of boiling on iron content in spinach. I'm faced with two problems. Namely, it's a very experimental investigation, and I doubt I can get literature values. I was told comparing with lit values should be done, is this a problem for me? (I WILL, however, be using the Beer-Lambert law....) The other thing is, if I choose to analyse the leaves themselves, and not the resultant water after boiling, I will need ethanol* to break the cell walls. Will this interfere with hydroxylamine hydrochloride and ortho-phenanthroline? *Check: I could just blender the leaves right? Thanks so much!!!
Last reply by kw0573, -
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Hi, I performed an enthalpy experiment with change in temperature, and I have 15 different graphs of temp change because i had 5 different conditions and 3 trials for each one of them. How can i display my raw data then? In tables for each? I think it will take up a lot of space. Will I be penalized if my IA exceeds 12 pages because of that? Thanks in advance.
Last reply by IBlearner73, -
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For my IA, I am doing a redox titration using sodium thiosfulate. My question is: if my school has provided me with a jug of sodium thiosulfate labelled 0.1M, would I still need to standardise it for my Chemistry IA? Or can I just assume that figure is correct? I'm afraid if I do this I will lose marks on methodology although I could just mention this in my Evaluation. Help would be much appreciated!
Last reply by IB`NOT`ez, -
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So, my teacher is not really great at giving us enough practice and does really teach well. But there are times where I do understand her but I don't really trust the way she teaches. I want to make sure that I do well in chem. And I don't know which resources to rely on for IB chem. SL. So if anyone would like to guide me through finding resources that will be of great use when I get stuck in Chem, that'd be great! Thanks
Last reply by Wyatt Berckenhoff, -
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I've got to start my Chemistry IA pretty soon, and I'm unsure what to investigate. I had an idea about "season cracking" the reaction of ammonia with brass, and I considered doing something with this, possibly measuring the rate of reaction or loss of copper for different types of brass. Any ideas?
Last reply by Throbbert, -
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For context - SL student Hi guys, my school just started the chem IA process. I have a few (rather weak) topic ideas for experimental investigations, but would prefer to do a database ia because I'm lowkey terrible at lab work. My teacher also hasn't really told us how to go about developing methodology and approach so I'm a little clueless. Any examples of database IAs I can view? Also, how do you go from the initial topic idea to developing a methodology and approach? Do you look for existing experiments and modify their procedures? Finally, is there anywhere I can look for topic STIMULUS? (not topics, I'm not that lazy, but interesting chem things that …
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Hello, could somebody explain the attached problems? Also, for Q13, how can you infer the polarity with a rough idea of electronegativity? Do you need to know the values for some elements? Thanks in advance!
Last reply by Lynn Gweeny, -
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Hello, everyone My aim in my chemistry IA is to determine the activation energy of the reaction between HCl and Iron. Is this topic good enough for me to conduct experiments? I will use different temperatures and calculate the loss of mass in Iron. I already have the apparatus needed but I just feel like this topic is not good enough for IA. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks
Last reply by kw0573, -
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I have been keeping my Chemistry IA for last as it is the one causing me the most problems. MY school is new to IB and therefore the help given is quick limited and we only start doing IA's in IB2. Our teacher more or less let us fend for ourselves to develop a RQ and Protocol and after a long time of research I was wondering whether some more experienced students or ex-students might tell me if my topic is any good. I wanted to calculate the rate of reaction when adding different salts (NaCl, CaCl2, MgSO4, MgCl2) to Ice (H20). Along with this I would of course analyse the temperature changes throughout the reaction in order to conclude which salt has the most…
Last reply by kw0573, -
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I want to do my HL Chemistry IA on either water purification or testing for pollutants from my local water source. Any ideas?
Last reply by tim9800, -
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So. I've really been struggling with chemistry, I think I can understand the concepts well enough, but when it comes to actually answering questions, I'm screwed. I can never tell what exactly the questions are asking for and how I can get marks. I've spoken to my teacher numerous times about this, but all she seems to suggest is to do past papers. The only past papers I can find are really old ones and I don't even know if they're applicable to the current syllabus. She doesn't give us IB questions to practice in class either, it's just random chemistry questions from god knows where. I'm really stressing out at this point since this is my final year and I really want to…
Last reply by yara560, -
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Hi, Could somebody explain the answer to the following question? Thanks in advance!
Last reply by Lynn Gweeny, -
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I need to make some graphs showing the different reaction pathways, but I don't have the equation of the line, and only have two points to plot, so where can I make the graph? I need an online software, or something like excel, because I don't want to draw it by hand, what can you recommend? Thank you.
Last reply by tim9800, -
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Hello everyone, Now I am one of those students that sucks at science and chose chemistry just because I thought it would be the one I'm least likely to fail in. But now that the internal assessment has come up I really don't know what to do. I understand how Google works, so the issue isn't googling and researching on the internet. However, I was wondering if anyone knew a topic that would be easy to understand and research? I also feel like I should add that I am not looking for a unique and interesting experiment which will get me a good grade. I just need to understand what I'm doing and pass.
Last reply by EvaF, -
Empirical formula lab
by Guest sofiamariana- 1 reply
- 922 views
When processing data, which values should I calculate the average from? Masses or moles of Mg and O, or ratio? Help!!
Last reply by Msj Chem, -
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So I recently came across a question that I just can't figure out (it might be really simple but I seriously need help with this one). So here it is: What is the concentration of OH– ions (in mol dm–3) in an aqueous solution in which [H+] = 2.0×10^–3 mol dm–3? (Kw = 1.0×10^–14 mol2 dm–6) A. 2.0×10^–3 B. 4.0×10^–6 C. 5.0×10^–12 D. 2.0×10^–17 If you could just work through the steps to give you the answer (which by the way is C according to the markscheme) that would be great. Please help, it's killing me...
Last reply by Msj Chem, -
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Hey guys, in my chemistry class, I and another student have come up with exactly the same topic for investigation independently, and been quite surprised that the teacher said that someone else is also doing my topic, without any kind of communication. We have different only bases used, however the overall concept is the same. Can they accuse us of any kind of plagiarism, cause I don't know but people can do same topics if they want to, right?
Last reply by kw0573, -
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Hi all, I'm doing an IA on how the change in concentration in sulfuric acid change its rate of reaction with magnesium. What will be a good personal engagement for this? Thanks:)
Last reply by Msj Chem, -
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Hello,everyone, I am in 11th grade,and I have chemistry HL. I struggle with that subject a bit. Do you have advices how to improve or some material that you can send me that are helpful? I appreciate every advice,thank you. )
Last reply by Bag, -
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I currently have an idea for my chemistry IA, but I can't find any previous lab work done on this specific topic. My topic is: What are the effects of the rate of reaction of sodium bicarbonate when combined with different pH levels of acids OR To what extent is the amount of CO2 collected from a sodium bicarbonate reaction affected when combined with different pH levels of acidity. Which topic should I pick or should I just scrap what I have and find another experiment.
Last reply by HappyIB:), -
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I'm about to start IB in September, and my school subscribed us the Pearson textbook for chemistry but I would also like to have a study guide that has all the information that I need to know according to the syllabus, so if anyone has an idea of the best IB chemistry study guide out there please do tell.
Last reply by Martijn.S, -
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Hey guys, so I am doing my Chemistry IA on enthalpy changes of alcohol.. and so I was like half done my experiment (collected data) when I came across an IA topic researching exactly what I am researching, like my introduction, background info are different but our methodology to carry out the experiment is the same and data processing method is the same.... I was wondering is it okay to carry on? I still have my own original data, original background information, original introduction...its just our method to carry out the experiment and the way to find out the calculations is the same....... shall I carry on with my IA? please do let me know if you have any input o…
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Hello all, I take chemistry HL and I need a topic for my chemistry IA new syllabus. I have suggested two ideas for my supervisor but he said they are not good. He said that the expire meant should deal with a broad topic and have qualitative data( the one with calculations) he emphasized on the point of the experiment having calculations. And he said it should relate in someway to daily life, it's good to do about food, water , cosmetics, detergins.... Any suggestions for topics???? The two topics he refused and said we're not good are: 1. The effect of temperature on the acidity of lemons 2. Something dealing with zinc half life
Last reply by torihk, -
My friend and I were reviewing over ionization energies when we stumbled upon this beauty. (Spoiler reveals our opinion, I wouldn't want you to be influenced by our opinion! Spoiler We think that the answer is B or D because there is a large jump from the 1st to 2nd IE; thus, eliminating A and C. However we became stuck on the next IE levels. I've asked my teacher her opinion on the answer, and she also struggled to choose from B or D. What is your opinion on this?
Last reply by kw0573, -
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Hi Im considering taking Chemistry as a subject in IB because I am yet to start school but I am not too sure about it as I did not take Chemistry as a subject for my IGCSE/GCSE. I wonder what you guys think about this and it would be really helpful if i could have a general comparison of chemistry as a subject in IB and IGCSE Thanks a lot
Last reply by RoshanRamnani, -
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So I have this idea for my chemistry IA that I'm not sure of. I want to compare and contrast the effect of the different ratio between baking soda and acid vs. the amount of baking powder on the height the cake after baking. Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and another acid that reacts when mixed with wet ingredient; it is used to make a cake "fluffy." I want to see if baking soda + acid will have the same effect as baking powder and how different amount of it will affect how much the cake rises. Possible variables: Independent- the ratio between baking soda and an acid + amount of baking powder (the total mass of baking powder and acid will be c…
Last reply by nicole_zhang, -
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Hello! I have to hand in my first draft for my chemistry investigation in one week and I've read ever single guide and checklist on how to do it. But my problem is I don't know what to do it on... My original idea was to investigate how the amount of baking soda in bath bombs affected the rate of reaction between the bath bomb and water, and how the temperature of the water affected. But now that I've seen so many examples, I think this idea lacks a great deal of science and data. At this point I don't have access to a lab, and the material I have at home is very limited. So I wanted to do something that was just data based, like creating tables and graphs and d…
Last reply by MaferAA, -
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Hi! I’m currently doing my IB Chemistry EE with the topic of Anaemia I’m investigating the effects of putting iron objects in food while cooking to see if that raises its iron content. I got the idea from http://www.luckyironfish.com/ a project started a couple of years ago to treat anaemia in Cambodia. I’m having trouble with a research question for this, as I don’t quite know what to focus in on. I thought I’d try to replicate the experiment with just a piece of iron; placing iron nails in a pot of water to see if the iron content would go up, and do my EE as an evaluation and comparison of both the Lucky Iron Fish and ordinary pieces of iron …
Last reply by kw0573, -
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So I have to do a theoretical IA in chemistry since I kind of screwed up with my practical one... I am in chemistry SL and this is a kind of hard situation for me as I don't really have any idea what I want to write about and the full draft is due 27 August 2017. My teacher gave me some sources in the form of databases but to be true I am not that good in chemistry. I take chemistry SL which may save me. Anyway if anyone did a theoretical IA in chemistry I would be very grateful for any tips.
Last reply by kw0573, -
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Hi, So basically for my IA, I'd like to do something to do with glow sticks and the kinetics of it and based on the website below it says I can plot ln(light intensity) vs. 1/T. Could anyone point me in the right direction in terms of this/verify that this is correct? I've never heard that you can plot ln(light intensity) vs. 1/T and I've been unable to find any other experiments that do this? Any help would be appreciated, thank you! http://www-chem.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/teaching-labs/demos/demo16.html
Last reply by kw0573, -
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Does anyone have any advice on how to write scientifically for the IAs as I am been told that my language is too informal? Thanks!
Last reply by IB`NOT`ez, -
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The answer is "reducing agent." So here's what I have so far: ClO3- --> ClO2 ClO3: Cl +5; O -2 ClO2: Cl +4; O -2 I understand Cl is being reduced and nothing is being oxidized. My teacher taught me that if something is being reduced than you need an oxidizing agent? So my brain is telling me that since I have something being reduced, I would need an oxidizing agent. Why is it reducing agent? (I really hate redox
Last reply by kw0573, -
chemistry First year of IBDP
by Guest- 1 reply
- 624 views
Hey people out there! I'm Livanya. I have recently joined IBDP and I have no idea what experiment I should do for Chemistry. If anyone has any idea how to start about, please help!
Last reply by Aya103, -
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G'day tigers. I've run into a bit of a massive pickle basically. For my Chemistry IA, I reckon I've bitten of significantly more than I'm able to comfortably or even uncomfortably chew. The only thing I knew going into the Chem IA was that if I did a titration based prac I was probably going to commit seppuku, or hold my face over a bunsen burner, and so with that in mind I decided to investigate "The effect percentage composition of tin has on the electrical conductivity of lead based solder' which sounds nice and pretentious for the bigwigs. The problem that I've run into dearest fellow IB masochists, is that, after melting down and casting a whole b…
Last reply by Sleek, -
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hey, so I recently started brainstorming on what I can do for my chemistry IA. I am doing HL chemistry and I am going into the final year of IB. I have somewhat of a basis on what I want to do. I want to do titration, having the acid be hydrochloric acid and using various basic solutions. For the basic solutions, I want to create solutions from some antacids and compare how each antacid works by seeing how much of each is needed for the pH of the acid to reach and maintain a neutral pH. I'm not sure if this is going to work because this idea is still in the works. Any ideas or tips on how I can improve??
Last reply by Jennita, -
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Hello all! So, I have a slight issue with my Chemistry IA. My topic is on the enthalpy change of solutions of instant heating and cooling packs. The research question is "How do 5.000 grams of different chloride salts (magnesium, calcium, strontium, iron (III), zinc) affect the total enthalpy change of solution of an instant heating or cooling pack when dissolved in 50.0 mL of water?" Basically, that is the complicated way of saying that I dissolved salts in water and tracked the temperature of the solution over time. I completed my experiment and wrote a good chunk of my IA before first year of IB ended. The issue, however, is that my experiment went... wrong, in di…
Last reply by kw0573,