Name: Partners:

Acid/Base Titration

All strong acids and strong bases are Arrhenius acids and bases. By Arrhenius’ definition, an acid is
a proton donor while bases are hydroxide donors. When an acid is in solution with a base, the proton
and hydroxide ion react to form water. If there are equal amounts of both acidic protons and basic
hydroxide ions, the solution is neutral (neither acidic nor basic). Note that the equal amounts are
based on stoichiometry.

There are many compounds that change color based on the acidity (pH) of the solution. These
compounds are known as indicators. Phenolphthalein is a very common indicator in titrations as it
changes from clear to pink at a pH of 8 (very close to neutral). If a strong base is added to a solution
of strong acid (clear) so that the mixture is barely pink (the lightest baby pink you can imagine), the
solution will be extremely close to its equivalence point. The equivalence point is where the mols of
acid (protons) in the solution are equal to the mols of base (hydroxide ions) based on stoichiometry.

Titrations are typically done in order to determine the exact molarity of either an acid or a base.
Exact molarities will typically have 4 significant digits, so the volumes you measure should have two
decimal places. When solutions are made, they typically will only have 1-2 significant digits, so only
the approximate concentration will be known. We will use the approximate concentration of base
and the precise concentration of acid to predict the approximate volume of base needed for titration.
Using that volume, we will be able to quickly and accurately titrate our solutions.

Pre-Lab Questions:

Consider the titration of phosphoric acid with sodium hydroxide in the following equation.
NaOH(aq) + H3PO4(aq)  Na3PO4(aq) + H2O(l)
1. A 25.00mL sample of 1.30M phosphoric acid was titrated against sodium hydroxide. In one
of the trials, 64.78mL of sodium hydroxide was required. What is the precise molarity of the
sodium hydroxide?

2. Calculate the relative deviation in ppt (see the last page, Calculation section) for the following
set of data.
15.75 15.78 15.77 15.74 15.79

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By E. Nuckels.
Predictions:

Look at the bottles and note the concentrations of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide below.

Molarity of HCl: M Molarity of NaOH: M

HCl(aq) + NaOH(aq)  NaCl(aq) + H2O(l)

1. Determine the mols of acid in 10.00mL of the hydrochloric acid solution.

2. How many mols of base will be required to reach the equivalence point?

3. Approximately how many mL of base will you need to reach the equivalence point?

Procedure:
1. Take your 250mL beaker and obtain approximately 100 mL of sodium hydroxide solution.
2. Pour the water out of your buret and use a small amount of sodium hydroxide solution to
clean the buret. Make sure it runs through the tip. You can use your 400mL or 600mL beaker
as a temporary waste container. Fill the buret above the 0.00mL mark (at the top) and let it
drain so that it is below the 0.00mL. Each of you will need to have a buret cleaned and filled
with sodium hydroxide.
3. Take your other 250mL beaker and obtain approximately 75mL of hydrochloric acid solution.
4. Each person will need to have 3 “good” titrations. To do a titration, do the following steps.
a. Use the pipette to obtain exactly 10.00mL of hydrochloric acid and put it in your
250mL Erlenmeyer flask.
b. Add approximately 50mL of distilled water to the flask. The precision of this volume
does not matter.
c. Add 2-3 drops of phenolphthalein to the flask. The solution should be clear.
d. Note the initial volume of the buret to the correct number of decimal places. Make
sure that the volume remaining in the buret is at least 10mL more than your predicted
amount of base from above. If it is not, refill it before noting the initial volume.
e. Add 5mL less than your predicted value of base to the flask from your buret and swirl
the solution. The solution should still be clear. You may want to place a blank sheet
of paper under or behind your flask for contrast.
f. Slowly add more base, one drop at a time, to the flask and swirl the solution.
Continue this until the solution turns and stays faintly pink for 30s to 1 minute even

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By E. Nuckels.
 with swirling. You do NOT want your solution to be bright pink. Warning: The
difference between light pink and bright pink (fuchsia) will be a drop (or less)!
g. If the solution is faint pink, record your final volume with the appropriate number of
decimal places. If the solution is bright pink, you will need to redo the trial.
h. Pour the solution in the flask into the waste container. Clean the flask and repeat step
3 until you have 3 “good” titrations.
5. Clean and refill your buret with distilled water. Put your waste in the acid/base waste
container.
6. Copy your partner’s data to your data sheet and complete your calculations.

Calculations:

1. Determine the volume of base added for each trial. Use the precise molarity of base to
determine the mmols of base for each of the trials.
2. Use stoichiometry to determine the mmols of acid. Each trial used 10.00mL of acid, so
determine the molarity of acid and the average.
3. Determine the deviation from average (𝑋�) for each of the trials.
4. Determine the average deviation (𝑑̅ ).
5. Find the relative deviation in ppt using the equation below. Good precision is <5ppt. Great is
<3ppt.
𝑑̅
𝑝𝑝𝑡 = × 1000
𝑋�
Data

Trial 1 2 3 4 5 6
Initial Buret
Reading
(mL)
Final Buret
Reading
(mL)
Volume of
Base Added
(mL)

mmols of
Base added
mmols of
Acid
Precise
Molarity of
Acid
Deviation
from average

Average
Relative
Precise Average
deviation
Molarity of deviation:
(ppt):
Acid:

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By E. Nuckels.