UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA

FACULTY OF NATURAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
NAME:DRAKES, Tameica DATE /TIME: 2/11/2023
USI: 1042436 ROOM: _________________________________
CHM1207 Experiment #3
Determination of the concentration of a solution of sulphuric acid prepared by dilution of a stock
solution
INTRODUCTION:
In the pharmaceutical, medical, food, agricultural, chemical and analytical industries the concentration
of a solution is often changed by the addition of a solvent; most often water. Dilution is the addition of
solvent, which decreases the concentration of the solute in the solution. But the amount of solute
remains the same. This gives us a way to calculate what the new solution volume must be for the
desired concentration of solute. From the definition of molarity:
molarity (M) = #moles of solute (mol) / volume of solution(V)
# moles = MV
Because this quantity does not change before and after the change in concentration, the product 
MV must be the same before and after the concentration change. Using numbers to represent the initial
and final conditions, we have
M1V1 = M2V2
as the dilution equation.
OBJECTIVES:
● To dilute a stock solution of sulphuric acid.
● Determine the concentration of the diluted acid solution by titration with standard potassium
hydroxide solution.
MATERIALS:
● Stock solution of sulphuric acid
● 0.083M potassium hydroxide solution
● phenolphthalein indicator
● 2-10mL pipette
● 100mL volumetric flask
● conical flask
● beakers
PROCEDURES: (Students will work in groups as determined by the Laboratory Instructor)

1. Use a pipette to transfer a 10mL aliquot of the sulphuric acid stock solution to the volumetric
flask.
2. Make up this solution to mark with distilled water.
3. Rinse and fill your burette with the potassium hydroxide solution. Take the initial burette
reading to the closest 0.05mL. Record data to TWO decimal places.
4. Transfer 10mL aliquots of the dilute sulphuric acid solution to each of four conical flasks and
add 2-3 drops of the phenolphthalein indicator to each flask.
5. Titrate with potassium hydroxide solution to a permanent pale pink endpoint.
RESULTS:

Trial 1 2 3

Final burette reading (mL) 18.00 +/- 35.30 +/- 47.60 +/- 36.30 +/-
0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05
Initial burette reading (mL) 0.00 +/- 18.00 +/- 30.40 +/- 19.10 +/-
0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05
Titre (please tick) 18.00 +/- 17.30 +/- 17.20 +/- 17.20 +/-
0.10 0.10 0.10 0.10

Average Titre: 17.20 mL ( avg of best two acc) = 0.017L +/- 0.10 L

Exercises
a) Calculate the number of moles of KOH which reacted.

C = 083M -KOH
C= n/V
n= C x V = 0.083 mol /L x 0.017 L
= 0.0014 mol

b) Write a balanced equation for the reaction between potassium hydroxide and sulphuric acid.

H2SO4 (aq) + 2KOH (aq) → K2SO4(aq) + 2H2O (l)

c) Determine the number of moles of sulphuric acid that reacted with the calculated amount of
potassium hydroxide.

H2SO4 (aq) : KOH (aq)

1: 2 mol ratio
0.0014/2 : 0.0014 moles
0.00071mol
d) Calculate the concentration of the diluted sulphuric acid solution

C= n/V n= 0.00071 mol , V=0.01 L

C= 0.00071 mol / 0.01 L = 0.07055 mol/L

0.07055 M
e) Determine the concentration of the sulphuric acid stock solution.

C1V1 = C2V2
C1 = C2V2/ V1 = (0.07055mol/L x 0.1 L )/ 0.01L = 0.7055 mol/L

______ 0.7055______M
f) Please describe a specific example related to your area of study when dilution is required.
Serial dilutions are used in microbiology ( Biology) to reduce bacterial concentrations to the
required concentration for a particular test method or to a concentration that is easier to count when
plated to an agar plate.
Burette Readings

ROUGH/TRIAL

Initial Reading Final Reading

ACCURATE 1
 Initial Reading Final Reading

ACCURATE 2

Initial Reading Final Reading

ACCURATE 3
Initial Reading Final Reading