Helen J. Mendez P.

4 Lab Report 05/13/13

Acid- Base Titrations Lab Introduction: The purpose of this lab is to identify who killed Mr. Mek through the analysis and matching of the molarity of HCl acid to the molarity of the suspect. In order to do this one must use a titration; titration is a technique used to determine the concentration of an unknown acid or base. An acid solution donates hydrogen ions while bases absorb hydrogen. For matching molarity to occur the reaction will go through neutralization; a reaction in which an acid and base react to produce neutral water and salt. When theres enough base added to neutralize the acid, the reaction is at its equivalence point; a point that moles of base equals moles of acid. The indicator will turn pink if a basic solution or colorless if an acidic solution. Through moles of base or moles of acid one can then find the molarity; molarity is the concentration measured by the number of moles of solute, part of the solution which takes up less volume, of a solution. Procedures: 1. The goggles were put on. Materials were checked. 2. The initial volume of NaOH was recorded. 3. 20.0 mL were measured from an acid sample using a graduated cylinder. The sample was poured into the Erlenmeyer flask. 4. Three drops of phenolphthalein indicator was added to the acid. 5. The unknown acid was titrated with NaOH by opening the stopcock until there was a slow stream of NaOH. 6. The flask was swirled to make the color disappear. 7. Neutralization became more visible when pink lasted longer and swirling took longer. 8. The stopcock was closed when reached neutralization or when the flask turned very dark pink. 9. Final volume of NaOH was recorded from the burette. 1

Helen J. Mendez P.4 Lab Report 05/13/13

10. Total volume of NaOH Used in titration (mL) was calculated. 11. The procedures were repeated for the other three samples. Data: Data: Volume, Molarity and Observations of the Suspects Exact Total Molarity of Initial Final Volume Volume of Volume Volume of HCl (M) of HCl NaOH of NaOH NaOH Used (mL) (mL) (mL) in titration (mL) Suspect A Kirkpatrick HCl Acid Suspect B Larkin HCl Acid Suspect C Nguyen HCl Acid Crime Scene HCl Acid Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 1 Trial 2 19 mL 29.2 mL 38.6 mL 9.4 mL .49 M HCl Observations / Notes

Too pink

20 mL 20 mL 21 mL

24.8 mL 17.7 mL 8 mL

29.2 mL 21.3 mL 24.8 mL

4.4 mL 3.6 mL 16.8 mL

.22 M HCl .18 M HCl .8 M HCl

Too Pink Successfully Slightly Pink Ok Pink

21 mL 20 mL

1.2 mL 13.7 mL

8 mL 17.7 mL

6.8 mL 4 mL

.32 M HCl .2 M HCl

Too Pink Successfully Slightly Pink

Calculations: See attached Conclusion: The purpose of the lab was met and the killer was found; thus, concluding Mr. Meks killer was Mr. Larkin due to the matching molarity of the crime scene HCl and that of suspects B. The titration was used to solve the concentration of the unknown acid or base; once the crime scene HCl acid was neutralized, a reaction in which an acid and a 2

Helen J. Mendez P.4 Lab Report 05/13/13

base react to produce neutral water and salt, the molarity of that acid was .2 M HCl. This indicated suspect B, Mr. Larkin, was the killer due to having the closest molarity of HCl, .18 M HCl. However the outcome for this conclusion was based on trial two due to having some source of errors in trial one. For the crime scene HCl acid in trial one, the molarity was much higher, .32 M HCl, and had no closest molarity to the other suspects indicating a source of error. A plausible source of error was that the amount of indicator used shifted due to the indicator not going in completely and staying on the sides of the Erlenmeyer flask. This would shift the end point of the titration which would result in a much higher use of volume of NaOH due to there being less phenolphthalein in the acid. Thus, as can be seen on the data for trial one, 6.8 mL of NaOH was used which was much higher than the amount used for the second trial, 4 mL NaOH. Furthermore, Mr. Larkins molarity of HCl was a little less than that of the crime scene HCl acid, indicating another source of error. A conceivable source of error was that the graduated cylinder or the Erlenmeyer flask was not rinsed. Hence, the graduated cylinder or flask was contaminated with the other neutralized solutions. This would cause the suspects, Mr. Larkin, acid to need less volume to reach neutralization due to having contaminated the graduated cylinder or Erlenmeyer flask. As a result the total amount of NaOH used to successfully neutralize the solution was 3.6 mL NaOH which caused the molarity, .18 M HCl, to be less than the crime scene HCl acid molarity, .2 M HCl. In conclusion the molarity of suspect B did not coincide exactly with that of the crime scene HCl acid due to the flask or graduated cylinder being contaminated. 3

Helen J. Mendez P.4 Lab Report 05/13/13