Chemistry Report 3: Titration of vinegar/ Neutralization reaction

This report Written by: Can, Dimitri, Ash, Oliver.

Students participating in the experiment: Dimitrios 1m, Oliver 1m, Ash 1m.
Teachers participating in the experiment: Kristian Rønning Pedersen (KRP)

Purpose
: To learn how to determine acid/base concentration when a neutralization reaction has occurred.
To determine or estimate the pH value of the neutralized product.

Theory
: The concentration of an acid or base solution can be determined by using a neutralization reaction.
To make the neutralization reaction happen, the acid solution needs to be mixed with the base
solution, and vice versa. This reaction can be done by titration with an acid-base solution to confirm
when to stop pouring the other solution, and estimate the pH value of the product afterwards by
observing the color of the product.

In general, vinegar is composed of water and ethanoic acid (CH 3COOH). The amount of ethanoic acid
(CH3COOH) can be determined by using the titration method of adding sodium hydroxide solution
(NaOH) from brunette to a solution of diluted vinegar (10 times diluted than original vinegar), and
using phenolphthalein as an indicator.

This situation is described following this chemical equation:

CH3COOH(aq) + NaOH(aq) → CH3COONa(aq) + H2O(l)

The reactants will become the product whenever the solution color becomes pink from colorless,
due to indicator change color when product is completed.

Equipment and Materials

Equipment:

250-mL Erlenmeyer flask, 25-mL pipette, pipette suction bulb (or a device with similar functions),
burette, 250-mL volumetric flask

Material:

0.100 M NaOH, phenolphthalein, ordinary vinegar (bought from a supermarket and demineralised
water).

Procedure
Through the experiment, take notes of your observations:

● Set up the burette and fill it with the 0.100 M NaOH solution. Make it ready for the titration.
● Dilute the vinegar to 1:10th by using the pipette to transfer 25.0 mL of vinegar to the
volumetric flask. Fill the flask with demineralised water to mark and ensure its homogenous
by pouring it in with a beaker.
● Using the pipette, transfer 25.0 mL of the diluted vinegar to the erlenmeyer flask and add a
few drops of phenolphthalein into it.
● Begin the titration by adding the NaOH solution in the burette to the diluted vinegar in the
erlenmeyer flask. Observe the solution to turn pink and stay pink even when shaken. Write
down the amount of NaOH added to reach the pink color.
 ● Carry out two more titrations to ensure the experiment was a success and record the results.

Data record

1st titration 2nd titration 3rd titration

Volume of 0.100 M of 24 mL 20.6 20.8

NaOH

The 1st titration is not reliable since 1st titration always have a higher amount than the next
titration, so I will be not using the 1st value for data analysis
Average Volume of 0.100 M (2nd and 3rd) = (20.6+20.8)/2 = 20.7

Analysis
The calculation of the number of moles of the NaOH that added to diluted vinegar solution

Number of moles of CH3COOH in diluted vinegar solution = Number of moles of NaOH, because the
ratio of coefficient formula is 1:1

To find the amount of mole of ethanoic acid (CH 3COOH) in non-diluted vinegar solution, multiple
with 10 to number of CH3COOH that diluted in vinegar solution
The calculation of mass of ethanoic acid (CH 3COOH) in diluted vinegar solution and non-diluted
vinegar solution

The calculation of percentage that contain ethanoic acid (CH 3COOH) in diluted vinegar solution and
non-diluted vinegar solution

The amount of ethanoic acid (CH3COOH) that is actually contained in non-diluted vinegar solution
The pH-value of product by look at color of indicator

According to the picture, using Phenolphthalein as an indicator means the range of pH should be 8.2
to 10, which is considered as the basic product.

Error
We suggest the 2 possibilities that can make the error occurred

1. Too much/little amounts of titrated NaOH

To find the error, find the mass of the actual value of the non-diluted vinegar solution, then find the
number of moles, and lastly find the volume of actual value of the non-diluted vinegar solution. And
we assume that water(for dilution) isn’t spilled.
Error = ∣0.0207L - 0.02082L∣ = 0.00012 L = 0.12 mL

Looking at the amount of the error, NaOH solution should be added 0.12 mL more to get ethanoic
acid content percentage at 5%.

2. Water that is dilute spilled out by a minor amount, or water is poured in excessed amount , and
we assume that we titrated perfect amount of the NaOH solution.
According to calculation of the error, perhaps we poured water in excessed amount by 0.14 mL

Overall, those 2 statements still are very small mistakes, according to calculation of error
percentage.

Conclusion
What we have done is to show how to determine the amount of ethanoic acid (CH 3COOH) in the
correct way.

We only know/suggest that the neutralization reaction makes a product become neutral instead of
acidic/basics, but that only happens when the strength of acid/base of both reactants are equally
strong.

In this case we used sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and ethanoic acid (CH 3COOH) as reactants and ended
up having sodium acetate (CH3COONa), which possesses basic properties, and that is because The
salt is formed by weak acid (CH3COONa) and strong base (NaOH) , we can using common logic like:
strong + weak = strong become weaker.
The pH value of 0.100M NaOH is 13.0 mixed up with ethanoic acid (CH 3COOH) which about pH 3
ends up in a range of pH 8.2 to 10.

This means that a neutralization reaction makes a product become weaker acidic/basics or become
neutral, or change its properties to basics/acidic, depending on which reactants that you are using.