INTRODUCTION

One of the most common and familiar reaction in chemistry is the reaction of acid and base.
This reaction is termed neutralisation, with the essential feature of this process in aqueous
solution is the combination for hydronium ions (HO+) with hydroxide ions (OH) to form
water.
The technique of accurately measuring the volume of a solution required to react with another
reagent is termed titration. An indicator solution is used to determine whether an acid has
neutralised a base or vice versa. A suitable colour change shows equivalent amount of acid
and base are present.
The colour change is termed the end-point of the titration. Indicators change colours at
different pH values. Phenolphthalein for example changes from colourless to pink at a pH of
about 9
OBJECTIVES
- To determine the concentration of sulphuric acid (H2SO4) using titration technique.
APPARATUS
Burette, Burette Clamp, Retort Stand, 20mL Volumetric Pipette, Pipette Filler, 250mL
Conical Flask, Beaker
CHEMICALS
NaOH Solution, approximately 0.2M, Dilute Sulphuric Acid of Unknown Molarity,
Phenolphthalein
PROCEDURE
1. The burette is rinsed with distilled water and the burette is rinsed with about 5-10mL
of NaOH solution, running the second rinse through the burette tip. The burette is
clamped to the retort stand.
2. The burette is filled with the base. The tip is completely filled and contains no air
bubbles. The initial burette reading is recorded.
3. Volumetric pipette is used to transfer 20mL H₂SO₄ to a clean 250mL conical flask.
Two drops of phenolphthalein indicator is added. Flask is placed on the white tile
under the burette and the burette tip is lowered into the flask. The initial burette
reading is recorded.
4. The acid is titrated by adding base until end point is reached. The flask is swirled
during titration. The end point is indicated when the entire solution retain a faint pink
colour for 30 seconds. The final burette reading is recorded. The result obtained is the
ROUGH TITRATION.
5. The titration process is repeated until two consecutive titration (one titration after
another)
6. The results is shown to the laboratory instructor.
7. The readings from all titration is recorded on the report sheet.
8. The burette is emptied and rinsed twice with tap water and distilled water after
titration is finished.
CALCULATIONS

QUESTIONS
1. Why is phenolphthalein used in the experiment?
Phenolphthalein is used in the experiment because phenolphthalein act as an indicator in
acid-base titration which in this case, NaOH act as a base and H₂S0₄ act as an acid.
Phenolphthalein change the colour of the solution between 8.3-10 in its range, proving it was
a base solution.
2. NaOH is a hygroscopic compound and all NaOH solutions must be standardised before it
can be used for analysis. Using references, explain the given terms.
(a) hygroscopic
Hygroscopic means the ability of a substance to attract water from its surroundings. The
terms ‘attract water’ is significant to hydrophilic, which means water-loving. One of the
characteristics of hygroscopic substance is polar. However, only some of the hygroscopic
substances are capable to dissolve in water, such as sodium hydroxide.
(b) standardisation
Standardisation is a process to identify the exact molarity of a solution. As to be said, NaOH
solution have a molarity of 0.2M. Students are required to calculate the exact molarity of
dilute sulphuric acid to complete this experiment.
DISCUSSION
A titration is an experiment where a volume of a solution of known concentration is added to
a volume of another solution in order to determine it’s concentration. In the titration by using
H2SO4, as the acid solution and NaOH as the base solution. For this experiment is the
neutralization of sulfuric acid of unknown molarity, Phenolphthalein. Phenolphthalein is used
in the experiment because phenolphthalein act as an indicator in acid-base titration which in
this case, NaOH act as a base and H2S04 act as an acid. Phenolphthalein change the of the
solution between 8.3-10 in it’s range, proving it was a base solution. Phenolphthalein is an
indicator for acid-base titration that will show pink colour for basic solution and colourless
for acid solution. By adding phenolphthalein to an acids, the solution will be colourless.
Then, add standard base from the burette until the solution barely turns form colourless to
pink. For this experiment, the goal was to get the solution to turn to light pink colour. When
adding too much the standard base, the solution will turn to bold pink colour. Hence we have
to be careful when adding the standard base and specifically measure the amount of standard
base that has been used so that we won’t make mistakes to achieve the goal of the
experiment. There are some precautions during this experiment as it is very hard to get the
colour of light pink, we have to be precisely and specifically with our measurements. First,
each apparatus must be rinsed with distilled water. We have to measure the amount of
solution specifically during the dilution of the solution. We must make sure the solution from
the burette flow very slowly to avoid some mistake during take of the reading. Make sure
there are no air bubble in the burette by opening the stopcock for a while and let the solution
to flow a bit to avoid reading mistakes. This experiment is repeated until we have two
consecutive titration
CONCLUSION
Throughout the lab, an acid-base titration of 10mL of an unknown solution (NaOH) as to
determine its molarity. The titration process involved the repetitive dropping of
phenolphthalenin indicator. As the conclusion, the concentration of Sulpuric Acid has been
proven using titration technique. This concentration could be found because of the average
volume of NaOH used in titration.

REFERENCES
- Thordarson, Pall. "Determining association constants from titration experiments in
supramolecular chemistry." Chemical Society Reviews 40.3 (2011): 1305-1323.
- Hu, H., Bhowmik, P., Zhao, B., Hamon, M. A., Itkis, M. E., & Haddon, R. C. (2001).
Determination of the acidic sites of purified single-walled carbon nanotubes by acid–
base titration. Chemical Physics Letters, 345(1-2), 25-28.
- Crossno, S. K., Kalbus, L. H., & Kalbus, G. E. (1996). Determinations of carbon
dioxide by titration. Journal of chemical education, 73(2), 175.