Copyright © 2017 Dr N A Lewis. All rights reserved.

Acids and Bases Lab

There are three commonly used definitions that describe acids and bases.

Historically, the first definition to be widely accepted was contained in the Arrhenius Theory
postulated in 1887. According to Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish scientist, acids are substances that
dissociate when dissolved in water to yield hydrogen ions (H+) and bases are substances that
dissociate when dissolved in water to yield hydroxide ions (OH-). Surprisingly, the Arrhenius
definition is the one that is still most widely used today.

The second definition of acids and bases was proposed in 1923 by Johannes Bronsted, a Danish
Chemist and Thomas Lowry, an English Chemist. These scientists were not working together but
they independently proposed that a substance can function as an acid only in the presence of a
base. The reverse was also true. A substance can function as a base only in the presence of an
acid. In the Bronsted-Lowry Theory, when writing an equation describing acids and bases, there
are always two sets of conjugate acid/base pairs. In this definition also, the H+ ion is often referred
to as a “proton”. So, a common definition of Bronstead-Lowry acids and bases is that an acid is a
proton donor and a base is a proton acceptor.

Finally, there is another definition of acids and bases proposed by Gilbert Newton Lewis, also in
1923. This is the same person who developed the idea of Lewis Dot Theory, which you have
likely studied in class. Remember that stable structures tend to have an octet of electrons (8 of
them) organized into pairs (4 pairs) around each atom (except for H and He which are so small
that they each have a maximum of only one pair of electrons).

In the Lewis Theory, an acid is a lone pair acceptor and a base is a lone pair donor. Note that it
is incorrect to state that an acid is an electron donor and a base is an electron acceptor (it is even
incorrectly stated this way in textbooks) because the electrons are always donated and accepted in
pairs. In all of Lewis’ papers, the idea of the electron pair bonds and electron lone pairs around
atoms in molecules is of paramount importance.

Only radicals, which are inherently unstable and short-lived, very reactive species, have a single
electron in an orbital. These kinds of molecules are too dangerous to study in an undergraduate
lab. They are responsible for causing serious diseases like cancer. Even in the case of radicals,
any acid/base reactions that occur in the Lewis sense would involve lone pairs. So, the definition
as stated above is correct and the word “pair” must be there.

In terms of properties, acids are sour and bases taste bitter. However, in a laboratory, you cannot
taste anything as a way of testing it. So even the food that you will be working with today must
be treated as any other chemical. As a matter of safety, you must not put anything into your
mouth. It is not possible to know what chemicals were used by somebody else doing an experiment
yesterday in the same laboratory and that person might have been studying materials that are much
more dangerous. Contaminating materials are always a consideration when working in a lab.

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One test for an acid or a base is the LITMUS TEST. Litmus is a natural dye molecule that is
sensitive to acids and bases. It has been used for a very long time. It is thought that litmus was
used for the first time about 1300 AD by Spanish physician Arnaldus de Villa Nova. Acids turn
litmus red and bases turn litmus blue. Below is the structure of 7-hydroxyphenoxazone. This is
the molecule that is responsible for the color change in red or blue litmus paper. Note that it has a
single hydrogen atom attached to an oxygen atom on the lower left part of the molecule.

This is called the “acidic” hydrogen atom because it can come off or go back on at that position
depending on the pH of the solution. In an acidic solution it will be on (molecule will have red
color) and in the basic solution the hydrogen will come off as H+ (molecule will have blue color).
Note all the alternating single and double bonds in this molecule. Just as in the “Adipic Acid”
experiment, this is what usually causes molecules to be colored.

We are not going to use litmus to determine the presence of acids and bases today. Instead, we
will use a "UNIVERSAL INDICATOR". This is a solution that contains a mixture of dyes. It is
more sensitive than litmus in giving color changes in response to the concentration of H+ or OH-
ions in the acidic and basic solutions. However, the most accurate way to determine the
concentration of H+ ions in a solution is to use a pH meter, which we will do in the last part of this
experiment.

The definition of pH is that it is the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration.

pH = -log10[H+]

The p function is a general mathematical function that can be described as the negative log of any
desired value. It is used in studying acids and bases because it is often easier to work with logs of
concentrations than actual concentrations. Notice that there are square brackets around the H+
above. Any time you see square brackets around any species in Chemistry, that denotes that you
are considering the concentration of that species in mol/L.

A pH of 7 is neutral, a pH less than 7 is acidic and a pH greater than 7 is basic. It follows that the
lower the pH the more acidic the solution or material being tested while the higher the pH the more
basic is the solution.

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Copyright © 2017 Dr N A Lewis. All rights reserved.

PROCEDURE PART 1
1. Obtain a spot plate from the table at the front of the room.

2. Put a small amount of each of the 15 test solutions into a separate well of the spot plate
shown above. Place the spot plate on top of a piece of plain white paper so that you can
easily see the colors that you will get. Be careful not to use too much of each material (just
a little bit is best) and make sure you know what substance is in which well.

3. The 15 substances you will test are listed below in alphabetic order:

AMMONIA APPLES BAKING SODA BORAX CLUB SODA

EPSOM SALTS ONION SEA WATER STARCH SUGAR
TABLE SALT TAP WATER TOMATOES VINEGAR WASHING SODA

4. Obtain about 15 mL of the Universal Indicator Solution from the bottle in the fume hood.
Add about 1 mL of the UNIVERSAL INDICATOR to each of the 15 wells. The solution
will turn different colors depending on the pH of the material in each well and this will
allow the substances being tested to be rated on their strength as acids and bases. The
following chart gives the colors of the indicator at various values of the pH.

CHART 1
pH COLOR OF UNIVERSAL INDICATOR

4 RED
4.5 RED/ORANGE
5 ORANGE
5.5 ORANGE/YELLOW
6 YELLOW
6.5 YELLOW/GREEN
7 GREEN
8.0 GREEN/BLUE
8.5 BLUE
9 VIOLET

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Notice that the color changes are quite systematic in Chart 1 above. They follow the colors of the
colors of the rainbow or the colors of the visible spectrum in the correct order (ROYGBIV).

So after doing all these tests you will be able to fill in CHART 2 by putting each substance into
the proper location according to its color which in turn gives the pH of that material. More than
one material will obviously have the same pH value since there are 15 materials and only 10 pH
values from which to choose. You should be able to have at least one material for each of the pH
values listed, however.

CHART 2: Universal Indicator

pH Color Tested Materials

4.0 Red
4.5 Orange/red
5.0 Orange
5.5 Orange/Yellow
6.0 Yellow
6.5 Yellow/Green
7.0 Green
8.0 Green/Blue
8.5 Blue/Violet
9.0 Violet

PROCEDURE PART 2
Red cabbage, grapes, beets and many other plants contain natural dyes or pigments that also change
color with acids and bases. These natural materials can also be used to test for pH values just like
the Universal Indicator Solution except that their color changes are usually not as dramatic as the
commercial mixture and, of course, the color changes will not occur at the same pH values as in
the commercial mixture since the molecules causing the color changes are different.

In this part of the experiment we will use red cabbage juice and grape juice as our “Homemade
Universal” indicators. Will either of them be as good as the commercial Universal Indicator? Will
one of them be better than the other at sensing actual pH values?

1. RED CABBAGE AS A POSSIBLE NEW “INDICATOR”

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a) Take one leaf of the red cabbage and shred it. The darker red the leaf is, the better will be
your results.
b) Put this material into about 150 mL of water and heat it on the hot plate (no more than
300oC) until it just comes to a boil. Remove it from the hotplate using oven mitts and allow
it to cool on the benchtop as it steeps. THE WELL PREPARED STUDENT WILL DO THIS
FIRST THING UPON BEGINNING THE LAB IN ORDER TO SAVE TIME! Boiling the solution
too long will denature the pigments, rendering them useless. We are trying to extract the
dye from the cabbage, not cook it!
c) Obtain a new spot plate after taking a photo of it or clean your previous one.
d) This time you are going to test only 5 substances with your new “Universal Indicator”
which is the red cabbage extract.
e) Add a small amount of each of the following compounds to a well in your clean spot plate.
Make sure you know what substance is in which well.

AMMONIA BAKING SODA BORAX VINEGAR WASHING SODA

f) Add about 1 mL of the cabbage extract to each of the wells that have these compounds in
them.

You have the pH values for these five compounds from the Universal Indicator for these
compounds from Chart 2. You must enter these compounds in EXACTLY the same place in Chart
3 as you have them in Chart 2. In other words, under the heading “Universal Indicator” below,
ONLY the 5 compounds you are working with now should appear in exactly the same spot as they
appeared in your CHART 2 under the same heading.

CHART 3
Universal Cabbage Leaf
Indicator Indicator
Color TESTED MATERIALS Color
pH (same spot as in Chart 2)
4.0 Red
4.5 Orange/red
5.0 Orange
5.5 Orange/Yellow
6.0 Yellow
6.5 Yellow/Green
7.0 Green
8.0 Green/Blue
8.5 Blue/Violet
9.0 Violet

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Note that the color that a given compound produces in the Universal Indicator will almost never
be the same as what it produces in some other indicator such as Cabbage Extract. The color
produced is specific to the indicator not the substance being tested. Once you have filled out
CHART 3, you will now have a new color scheme for the five pH values of the compounds that
you tested. You can, in theory, now use cabbage juice as a “universal indicator” to test other
materials. Does this new color scheme make sense?

2. GRAPE JUICE AS A POSSIBLE NEW “INDICATOR”

To prepare the diluted grape juice that we will use as our indicator mix, you should dilute about
10 mL of grape juice provided with about 40 mL of water.

You are going to use the same five compounds as you did for the cabbage juice experiment.

AMMONIA BAKING SODA BORAX VINEGAR WASHING SODA

Again, you will add about 1 mL of the grape juice indicator mix to each of the five wells containing
the above compounds. Fill in Chart 4 below in the same manner as Chart 3.

CHART 4
Universal Grape Juice
Indicator Indicator
Color TESTED MATERIAL Color
pH (same spot as Chart 2)
4.0 Red
4.5 Orange/red
5.0 Orange
5.5 Orange/Yellow
6.0 Yellow
6.5 Yellow/Green
7.0 Green
8.0 Green/Blue
8.5 Blue/Violet
9.0 Violet

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Copyright © 2017 Dr N A Lewis. All rights reserved.

PROCEDURE PART 3
In this part of the experiment, we will use a pH meter to measure acidity even more accurately.

Do not attempt to operate the pH meter until your instructor has given you detailed
instructions on its use.

We are going to measure the pH of two commercial beverages: Coca-Cola®©™ and Mug®©™
Root Beer. Remember, you are in a lab so there must be no tasting of these “chemicals” in this
environment. Be sure to make a copy of the list of ingredients for each of them to help you to
explain your results in the lab report (take a pic with your camera). Also, do not forget that these
are carbonated beverages so that you have to consider what happens to CO2 dissolved in water.

Your laboratory instructor will demonstrate the proper use of the pH meter. Do not attempt to
use this instrument until you have had this instruction. Once this is done you can use it to test
for acidity or basicity of the two beverages.

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THINGS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND

(but this is not required for CHM 105)

1. Why is an H+ ion referred to as a “proton”?

The answer lies in a consideration of what is present in a hydrogen atom. All atoms have
the same number of protons and electrons. This is necessary because protons carry a
positive charge and electrons carry a negative charge. Atoms must be electrically neutral
so the charges must be equal.

Since the hydrogen atom is the first element on the periodic table, it must have only one
proton. Therefore, it must also have one electron. See picture below and then watch
what happens when you take away one electron from that atom. The electron has a
charge of -1 so whatever is left must have a charge of +1. What is left is just a proton so
H+ is just a proton! See picture below:

2. How do Bronsted-Lowry acids and bases work?

Consider the strong acid HCl dissolved in H2O

HCl(aq) + H20(l)  H30+(aq) + Cl-1(aq)

There must be two acid/base pairs for this equation to follow the Bronsted-Lowry
definition.

The rule is that a Bronsted-Lowry acid always has one more H+ than the corresponding
Bronsted-Lowry base.

Look at HCl. It has one more H+ in its formula than Cl-.

So HCl/Cl- is a Bronsted-Lowry acid/base pair.

Look at H3O+. It has one more H+ in its formula than H2O.

So H3O+/H2O is a Bronsted-Lowry acid/base pair.