A few Drops of HCl spilled over in the CaCO3 sample. Will the Reported percent of CaCO3 be too high, too low or unaffected?
Since the HCl reacts with the CaCO₃, I'd say the % would be less.
And, it would be carbonated!
I don't think this is a very good question, mostly because I don't think it has an answer. Yes, the HCl reacts with the CaCO3 and if you are measuring the CO2 output then the results will be too low; however, we don't know how much the water (in which the HCl was dissolved) weighs so the loss of CO2 + gain by water is the overall gain/loss. We don't know what that is because we don't know the mass of the water.
When hydrochloric acid (HCl) comes into contact with calcium carbonate (CaCO3), a chemical reaction occurs to form calcium chloride (CaCl2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and water (H2O) according to the following balanced equation:
CaCO3 + 2 HCl → CaCl2 + CO2 + H2O
The carbon dioxide evolved is a gas that will be released into the surrounding environment. This means that a portion of the initial calcium carbonate will be converted into gaseous carbon dioxide, leading to a decrease in the mass of the sample.
Since the amount of CaCO3 in the sample is lower due to the reaction with HCl, the reported percent of CaCO3 will be lower than the actual percentage. In other words, the reported percent of CaCO3 will be too low.
To determine whether the reported percentage of CaCO3 will be affected by the spilled HCl, we need to understand the reaction that occurs between HCl (hydrochloric acid) and CaCO3 (calcium carbonate).
The reaction between HCl and CaCO3 is as follows:
HCl + CaCO3 → CaCl2 + CO2 + H2O
In this reaction, calcium chloride (CaCl2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and water (H2O) are formed.
Since the spilled HCl reacts with CaCO3, it means that some of the CaCO3 will be converted into products, which can impact the amount of CaCO3 measured and reported.
Typically, the percentage of CaCO3 in a sample is determined by measuring the mass of CaCO3 and comparing it to the total mass of the sample. If some of the CaCO3 is reacted with HCl, there will be a decrease in the measured mass of CaCO3, resulting in a lower reported percentage of CaCO3.
Therefore, in this case, the reported percentage of CaCO3 will be lower than the actual value due to the reaction between HCl and CaCO3.