Chemistry 203

Pre-Lab Assignment: Determining the hardness of different

water sample

Name Carl-Etienne Chaaya Section # 7-A

ID # 201900730 Date 3-10-2020

1. Answer the following short questions:

a. What is the ligand used in this experiment?
EDTA: Ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid

b. What is the indicator?

Eriochrome Black T

c. What is the buffer?

NH3 / NH4Cl

d. What is the pH?

pH = 10

e. What are the predominant forms of the indicator and the ligand at this
pH?
Indicator: HE2-
Ligand: EDTA4-

2. Write the equation of the complexation reaction taking place in this

experiment and give the expression of the formation constant.
Mg2+ + EDTA4- → [Mg(EDTA)]2-

3. a) A 0.2431 g sample of CaCO3 is dissolved in 6 M HCl and the resulting

solution is diluted to 250.0 mL in a volumetric flask. Titration of a 25.00 mL
sample of the solution requires 25.95 mL of EDTA to reach the Eriochrome
Black T end point. What is the molarity of the EDTA solution?

The molar mass of CaCO3 is: 100.0875 g/mol

(0.2431 𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3 )
= 0.002429 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3
(100.0875 𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3 /𝑚𝑜𝑙)

25.00𝑚𝐿
0.002429 × = 0.0002429 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3
250.0𝑚𝐿
1 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐸𝐷𝑇𝐴
1 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3
→ 0.0002429 × (0.02595 𝐿 𝐸𝐷𝑇𝐴) = 0.009360 𝑚𝑜𝑙/𝐿 𝐸𝐷𝑇𝐴
b) A 50.00 mL sample of hard water is titrated with the EDTA solution in Part
a. The volume of EDTA required is 19.84 mL. What is the water hardness in
ppm CaCO3?

We obtained the molarity of the EDTA solution in (a), we can thus compute the
sample of CaCO3 in g:

𝑚𝑜𝑙 1 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐸𝐷𝑇𝐴

(0.01984 𝐿 𝐸𝐷𝑇𝐴) × (0.009360 𝐸𝐷𝑇𝐴) ×
𝐿 1 𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3
𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3
× (100.0875 𝑔 = 0.018586 𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3
𝑚𝑜𝑙

Assuming that the density of hard water is close to that of pure water:
(0.018586 𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3 )
= 0.0003717 = 371.7 × 10−6 = 371.7 𝑝𝑝𝑚 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3
50.00 𝑔