Food Science

Acid-Base Titration
16 January 2017
Anna, Yanisa Wetchapon
Mai, Parewa Pichayamarin
Mimi, Kanyaorn Ruetaijetjaroen
Sea, Nataphorn Soontornworasate
Introduction :

What would life be like without chemistry? What is the importance of chemistry to
daily life? You might think that chemistry and chemicals can only be found in the laboratory
and are no way related to a persons daily life. In fact, that is totally wrong. Chemistry is
actually common and is all around. Then again you may wonder how is that possible.
Everything is made up of chemical. Human, animals, plants and even food are all composed
of chemical. Without any awareness, people are almost always in contact with acid and basic
chemicals everyday. From the food that is being eaten such as vinegar, which contain acetic
acid, or by using cleaning products such as soap, that composed of basic solution. Referring
to the examples above, it is noticeable that acidic and alkaline products have different
characteristics. Acidic products have sour taste, release hydrogen or hydronium ion when
dissolved in water and have pH level less than 7. While alkaline products taste bitter, release
hydroxide ion when ionized and the pH level is greater than 7. To know how acidic or basic a
substance is, pH indicator strip is utilized. The level of acidity or alkalinity of the solution
will be later illustrated on the pH scale.
As usual when dealing with chemical, especially with acids and bases, chemical
reaction must take place. The chemical reaction in which hydrogen ions (from an acid) react
with hydroxide ions (from a base) to produce water molecules and salt is known as
Neutralization. In Neutralization reaction, the salt is formed from anion (from acid) and
cation (from base). The process of neutralization is vital when given an acid or base to
determine the unknown concentration. In order for the solution to neutralize, titration must be
performed. Titration is the method often used in the laboratory to determine the concentration
of an acid or base by neutralization of the acid or base. Due to the fact that the product of
neutralization cant be seen by sight, phenolphthalein needs to take part. Phenolphthalein acts
as an indicator to tell whether the solution is already neutralized or not. By added
phenolphthalein into the mixture, the solution will turn pink when the neutralization takes
place.
In the experiment, titration was conducted to find out which sample was more
concentrated. The acid that was being used in the experiment is acetic acid in Vinegar,
sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for the base, and phenolphthalein was added to the acid solution
as an indicator. Adding sodium hydroxide to the acetic acid to make it less acidic as well as
for neutralization to occur. The sample acidic solution would turn pink when neutralized. The
pH level of the solution should also be around 7 - 7.5 if the appropriate amount of sodium
hydroxide was added. The solutions concentration could be determine by looking at the
amount of base used. The more concentrated the solution, the more amount of base was
 required because the solution was harder to neutralize. The purpose of this experiment is to
determine which sample solution has greater concentration by performing titration.

Materials
1. 2 burets
2. 2 ring stands with clamps to hold the buret
3. Erlenmeyer flasks
4. Phenolphthalein solution
5. pH indicator
6. Safety goggles, Rubber gloves, Lab coat
7. An acid (vinegar)
8. A base (NaoH)

Procedure

1. Put on lab coat, gloves, and safety goggles (to be worn throughout the whole experiment)
2. Obtain one 50-mL buret on a ring stand that is filled with NaOH (sodium hydroxide).
3. Obtain two Erlenmeyer flasks filled with 15 mL different concentrations of vinegar.
4. Add 3-5 drops of the indicator phenolphthalein to the vinegar. Place the flask under the tip of
the buret containing NaOH.
5. Slowly add the NaOH to the vinegar. A pink color appears where the base first contacts the
acid. Swirl the flask until the color disappears.
6. Add the base, drop by drop, while swirling after each drop, until the base turns the solution
to a pale pink (not a bright pink) that does not disappear.
7. Record the volume of the base NaOH used from the buret.
8. Repeat procedure with the other three flasks.
9. Average for each concentration the amount of base required.

Data Table and Observations

 Title: Neutrilization of Acid and Base

Sample Amount of base used (mL) Color pH value Average amount of

base used (mL)

1.1 9.7 mL Light pink 9

12.1mL
1.2 14.5 mL pink 8.5

2.1 14.3 mL pink 9

14.8 mL
2.2 15.3 mL pink 10.5

Note: Theres an error in Sample 1.1, the pH value should be about 7 - 7.5 and more amount
of base should required.

Discussion Section

1. What was the function of the indicator in this experiment? How does it work?
Answer: Phenolphthalein, a chemical that is clear in acid solutions and turn pink in basic
solutions, which acts as the indicator in this experiment. Its function is to tell whether
neutralization had already occurred or not. If the whole solution turns completely pink,
neutralization has occurred.

2. Which sample of vinegar was more concentrated? Explain your answer.

Answer: Sample 2 was more concentrated because it required more amount of base for
neutralization to occur. The average amount of base used in sample 2 is 14.8 mL which is
more than the amount used in sample 1 (12.1). The more concentrated it is, the harder the
solution to neutralize. So more amount of base is needed.

3. If a neutralization reaction produces salt and water, write the chemical equation for
your experiment, and the name of the salt produced (You may have to research this).
Answer: The chemical equation is CH3COOH + NaOH = H2O + NaCH3COO. The
product from this reaction are H2O (water) and NaCH3COO (sodium acetate which is the
salt produced).

4. What are some functions of the salt produced from the titration?
Answer: There is a wide variety of sodium acetate s applications and uses. For example,
Industrial use, laboratory use or even being used as food preservation. Sodium acetate can
be used as food additive which is added to food to help prevent bacterial growth. It also
helps maintaining specific pH in food. Moreover, sodium acetate can be used to enhance
 flavors in food as well. For laboratory use, sodium acetate is commonly used in molecular
biology and biochemistry labs to extract DNA from cell. Lastly, for industrial use, sodium
acetate is used to neutralize the strong sulfuric acid contaminated in waste streams. It can
also remove impurities such as stains and rusts on metallic surfaces
( WASSERMAN, 2013).

5. The human body has a process for maintaining pH and regulating the amount of acid
and base present in the body. What is this process called and briefly explain some of its
functions and how it works.
Answer: Our body is extremely sensitive to the changing in pH level. Even the
insignificant change in pH can harm tissues, organ systems as well as denature the
protein. So in order to keep everything in good condition, the pH sustainable process is
presented in human body. This process is called Chemical Buffer Systems. Chemical
Buffer Systems work to resist any changes in pH level by balancing the amount of acid
and base. There are three important buffer systems in our body which are the Carbonic
Acid-Bicarbonate buffer system, the Phosphate buffer system, and the Protein buffer
system. The first one is the most important of all because the maintenance of blood pH is
extremely substantial. Normal Blood pH must be in between the range of 7.35 and 7.45.
The Carbonic Acid-Bicarbonate Buffer System has a vital role in maintaining the bloods
pH homeostasis by balancing carbonic acid (weak acid) and bicarbonate ion (weak base).
When the pH tends to increase, the system will release the weak acid to balance out the
overloaded base. On the other hand, when the pH becomes more acidic, the weak acid
will secrete. By doing this, excess acids or bases are neutralized. The system converts
strong bases to a weak base (bicarbonate ion), and strong acids to a weak acid (carbonic
acid) (SoftChalk LessonBuilder, 2010, para.2)

Conclusion:

In conclusion, titration is the method used in the laboratory to determine the concentration of
an acid or base by performing neutralization. For this experiment, sample 2 acidic solution
has a higher concentration than sample 1. The solution with greater concentration will require
more amount of base as its harder for the neutralization to take place.

Reference Page :

AACC. (2014, March 5). Acidosis and Alkalosis. Retrieved from

https://labtestsonline.org/understanding/conditions/acidosis/

Muzzi C. (2015, December 16). Vinegar Titration. Retrieved from

https://www.deanza.edu/chemistry/pdf/1A/Experiments/Experiment%20A7-%20Titration.pdf

SoftChalk LessonBuilder. (2010, January 25). Chemical Buffer Systems and Acid-Base
Balance. Retrieved from
https://media.lanecc.edu/users/driscolln/RT127/Softchalk/Acid_Base_Lesson/Acid_Base_Les
son4.html

Wasserman R. (2013, August 16). Uses for Sodium Acetate. Retrieved from
http://www.livestrong.com/article/137973-uses-sodium-acetate/

Wikipedia. (2017, January 5). Sodium acetate. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_acetate

Work Log :

Anna : Making the cover page, material lists, procedure, share ideas for the discussion
section, help making introduction.
Mai : Making the introduction & conclusion, Doing the discussion section and finalizing all
parts.
Mimi : Making introduction, data table, conclusion, share ideas for the discussion section and
help research information for discussion section.
Sea : Making the reference page, helping with the material lists, help researching information
for discussion section and help making introduction.