Experiment 10

Quality control: Measuring the acidity of vinegar.

Titrations – boring, yet important
• If you know the concentration of
one solution, you might be able
to measure the other!

• Particularly powerful for simple

acid-base reactions.

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The power of robots

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How good is that preservative?
• Acetic acid (ethanoic acid)

• Utilised on insanely large scales!

• Taste
• Preservative

• But how do we know it’s as

good as we want it?
• Titrations of course!

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The focus of this experiment

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The maths behind the magic

• Presume a 1:1 acid-base reaction.

• When all base has reacted with
all acid (seen as a colour
change):
n=cV
Where:
n = number of moles, units: mol
c = concentration, units = mol/L or M

V = volume, units = L
nacid = nbase
L = Litres
M = molar concentration or molarity

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End versus equivalent and indicator choice

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From C to w/v%
• Let’s use 1.000 M HCl as an example

• In 1 L of solution, what is the weight of HCl?

• Well, in 1.000 L we have 1.000 mol of HCl (which is what 1.000 M means!)
• Recall that n = m/MM
• So 1.000 moles = m (grams) / (1.008 g/mol + 35.45 g/mol)
• m (grams) = 36.45 g

• So now we know that in 1.000 L of solution, we have 36.45 g of HCl …

but what is this as a percentage?
• w/v % = (36.45 g / 1000 mL ) * 100 = 3.645 % (w/v)