PREPARATION AND STANDARDIZATION OF REAGENTS

*Lopez, Rizelle G.

Chemical and Food Engineering Department

Batangas State University Alangilan Campus

ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION

Standardization is doing a titration to work out the exact concentration of the solution you want to
use to determine the concentration of an unknown solution.

There are at least 2 kinds of solution in the standardization—a primary and a standard solution. A
primary standard is a highly purified chemical that is weighed accurately. On the other hand, a
standard solution is a solution for which the concentration (molarity / normality) is accurately
known. This kind of solution can be prepared in either of these two ways: first, the primary standard
is carefully weighed, dissolved, and diluted accurately to a known volume then the concentration can
be calculated out of this data. Another way is by making an approximate concentration in the
solution and standardize it by titrating an accurately weighed quantity of a primary standard.

Titration is the procedure used to determine the concentration of some substance by the controlled
addition of a solution into a reaction vessel (flask) from a buret. The solution of known strength used
in the titration is called the titrant. The substance to be determined in the solution is called the titrate.
The completion of the reaction is assessed with the help of an appropriate indicator. The volume of
the solution delivered from the buret can also be determined very precisely by the use of titration
method.

The preparation of HCl as well as its standardization against sodium nitrate (NaNO3) was studied in
this experiment to be able to know the concentration . After such methods, the concentration of HCl
was computed through the formula:

N (HCl) = [wt. Na2CO3 x 2000] / [MW Na2CO3 x Vol HCl]

MATERIALS AND METHODS

For the preparation of HCl, 500 mL of distilled water was measured using a graduated cylinder. Part
of it was transferred to a 500 mL volumetric flask and concentrated HCl (12N) was added. The
remaining distilled water was carefully added to make sure that it will not exceed to the mark. For
consistency, it was shaken dynamically for at least one minute while being covered with a glass
stopper.

For the standardization against Na2CO3, 3 mg of Na2CO3 was weighed and dissolved in an
Erlenmeyer flask with 100mL distilled water. Then, four drops of methyl orange was added.
Titration was performed using the prepared HCl which was dropped gradually to the solution in the
flask until its color turned from yellow to pink.

Three trials were performed for 0.02N of HCl and another three trials for 1N HCl.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

After further observation and calculations, it was found out that the prepared solution was not 0.02
N. Below is the table that shows the computed normality for each trials as well as the percent error
committed in the experiment.

A. 0.02 N HCl

TRIAL CONCENTRATION PERCENT ERROR

(N) (%)
1 0.01533 23.35
2 0.01725 13.73
3 0.02250 12.50

B. 1.0 N HCl

TRIAL CONCENTRATION PERCENT ERROR

(N) (%)
1 0.0731 92.69
2 0.6228 37.72
3 0.9974 0.26

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

http://homepages.ius.edu/DSPURLOC/c121/week11.htm

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090903183139AAXfQGm

APPENDIX

Table 1. Raw data obtained from the experiment.

CONCENTRATION TRIAL MASS OF FIRST FINAL VOLUME OF

(N) Na2CO3 (g) READING READING HCl (mL)
(mL) (mL)
0.02 1 0.0039
2 0.0032
3 0.0031
1.0 1 0.0031
2 0.0033
3 0.0037