Tablets and Mohr’s Method To determine amount of the various forms of chlorine by using the DPD tablets and Mohr’s methods (titration). Chlorination is the most commonly used method of disinfection. Although there are alternatives like ozone, chlorine is an inexpensive and a powerful oxidizing agent. The key reactions are: Cl2 + H2O < = > HOCl + H+ + Cl- HOCl < = > H+ + OCl- Together, HOCl and OCl- are called free available chlorine. The two most common methods for measuring the chlorine residual in water are the titration method and the DPD method. The titration method is suitable for measuring total chlorine concentrations greater than 1 mg/L. The DPD method can measure lower concentrations of total chlorine residual (down to 0.1 mg/L) and can measure individual chlorine species. In the Mohr’s method (titration) the chloride ion concentration is determined using a solution by titration with silver nitrate. As the silver nitrate solution is slowly added, a precipitate of silver chloride forms. Ag+(aq) + Cl–(aq) → AgCl(s) The end point of the titration occurs when all the chloride ions are precipitated. Then additional silver ions react with the chromate ions of the indicator, potassium chromate, to form a red-brown precipitate of silver chromate. 2 Ag+(aq) + CrO42–(aq) → Ag2CrO4(s) DPD NO.1 tablets Chlorometer device Titration set Graduated cylinder Silver nitrate solution (0.0141N) Potassium dichromate indicator (has orange color) What are DPD Tablets? They are used to measure chlorine levels, which is the most used way of disinfecting the water. These tablets are most commonly used for swimming pools, drinking water and industrial process water. When you use the chlorine to disinfect the water, the goal is to kill any germs. So you need to leave a small amount of active (Free) chlorine in the water, this is known as "residual chlorine" which is important as there will be chlorine available to help disinfect any further contamination of the water. It is of vital importance to work out the right amount of chlorine that needs to be added and too much is a negative to health and waste money and then too little chlorine can result in their being a high level of the disease that will cause the pathogens. How much Chlorine you need can be determined by deducting the residual from the amount of chlorine that has been added. There are 3 different DPD tablets that are available which are DPD 1: This will measure free chlorine, which is the cholrine that is in the water to kill any bacteria. DPD 2: This will measure combind chlorine, DPD 3: This is used to measure total chlorine only. These tablets can be reliably used to measure chlorine levels from 0.001 mg/l t0 10mg/l. So, when a sample that has a chlorine level of more than 10 the color will be beached out of the tablet, there will be a show of a pink color. Then after the color as gone it will return to its original color. You can use dilutions to help determine high range of chlorine levels. 1) Turbidity 2) pH 3) Contact time and temperature 1. Take a sample of drinking water with 100 mL and put it in a volumetric flask. 2. add 2 mL of chromate indicator. 3. Titrate the sample with 0.0141 N silver nitrate solution. Although the silver chloride that forms is a white precipitate, the chromate indicator initially gives the cloudy solution a faint lemon-yellow color. 4. The endpoint of the titration is identified as the first appearance of a red-brown color of silver chromate. 5. find the chlorine concentration as: 1. Crush the dpd No.1 tablet 2. Add the dpd to a water sample with a volume of 10ml in a specific vial 3. Prepare a blank sample (as step 2) 4. Put the blank sample in the chlorometer device (using Cl6 option) and press zero to calibrate the device 5. put the water sample in the device and press test then read the residual chlorine Total [Cl-] (mg/l)= (V of AgNO3 * N of AgNO3*1000*EW Cl)/Volume of the sample Residual chlorine (mg/l) is read from the chlorometer device Find the combined chlorine (mg/l) = total chlorine-residual chlorine Remember that the residual chlorine must be analyzed during 0.5hr To consider the water is safe to drink, the residual chlorine must be (0.3-0.5 mg/l) To consider the water is tasty, the total chlorine must be (80-200 mg/l)