Using Acid/Base Chemistry: A Quality Control Test

What is a Titration?

A titration is an analytical procedure used to determine the concentration of a sample by

reacting it with a standard solution. One type of titration uses a neutralization reaction, in
which an acid and a base react to produce a salt and water.

In equation 1, the acid is HCl (called hydrochloric acid) and the base is NaOH (called
sodium hydroxide). When the acid and base react, they form NaCl (sodium chloride),
which is also known as table salt. The titration proceeds until the equivalence point is
reached, where the number of moles of acid is equal to the number of moles of base.
This point is usually marked by observing a color change in an added indicator.

In a titration, the standard solution goes in a buret, which is a piece of glassware used to
measure the volume of solvent to approximately 0.1 mL of accuracy. The solution that
you are titrating goes in an Erlenmeyer flask, which should be large enough to
accommodate both your sample and the standard solution you are adding.

What is an Indicator and What is it Used For?

An indicator is any substance in solution that changes its color as it reacts with either an
acid or a base. Selecting the proper indicator is important because each indicator changes
its color over a particular range of pH values. Indicators are either weak acids or weak
bases. For example, phenolphthalein is a weak acid (which we will represent as HIn). In
aqueous solution, the phenolphthalein dissociates slightly, forming an equilibrium.
An equilibrium occurs when the amount of reactants and the amount of products are
constant. When a system is in equilibrium, it will stay there until something changes the
conditions. A famous French chemist, named Le Chatelier, developed a way to predict
how changes in equilibrium affect the system. Le Chatelier’s principle states that when
an equilibrium is disturbed by applying stress, the equilibrium will shift to relieve the
stress. In an acidic solution, there is an excess of H3O+ ions so the equilibrium will shift
to the left and favor the formation of HIn, thus we observe a clear solution. In basic
solution, there is an excess of OH- ions that react with the H3O+ ions to form water. This
shifts the equilibrium to the right because water is being formed and H3O+ ions are being
removed, thus we observe a pink solution. We can use this color change to determine
when the end of the titration has been achieved.

Table 1 lists common indicators and the pH range over which they change colors.
Table 1: Table of Indicators
Color change
Indicator Acid Base
interval (pH)
thymol blue 1.2 - 2.8 red yellow
methyl orange 3.1 - 4.4 red yellow
methyl red 4.4 - 6.2 red yellow
chlorophenol red 5.4 - 6.8 yellow Red
bromothymol blue 6.2 -7.6 yellow Blue
phenol red 6.4 - 8.0 yellow Red
thymol blue 8.0 - 9.6 yellow Blue
Phenolphthalein 8.0 - 10.0 colorless Red
alizarin yellow 10.0 -12.0 yellow green

Measuring pH: How to Calibrate a pH Meter

pH is a measure of acidity or basicity. An acid has a pH less than 7, a neutral compound

(like water) has a pH near 7, and a base has a pH from 7-14. pH can be measured using
either litmus (or indicator) paper, which changes color based on the acidity of a solution,
or by using a pH meter. A pH meter is a more accurate means of measuring pH because
it can be calibrated to measure one tenth of a pH unit, whereas the indicator paper only
measures to one pH unit.

A pH meter uses an electrode to measure the pH of a solution. The electrode is stored in

distilled water in order to keep it at a neutral pH.

To calibrate the pH meter:

1. Remove the electrode from the distilled water and place it in pH 4 buffer, which is
pink. Make sure the electrode is completely covered in buffer and swirl the
solution around.
 2. Set the pH meter to pH 4 and then rinse the electrode with distilled water to
remove any excess solution.
3. Place the electrode in pH 10 buffer (which is blue) and swirl it around in the
solution.
4. Set the pH meter to pH 10 and rinse the electrode, returning it to the distilled
water once you are finished.

The pH meter should now be calibrated to measure any pH accurately.

Standardizing a Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) Solution

In a titration, it is critical to know the exact concentration of the titrant (the solution in the
buret which will be added to the unknown) in order to determine the concentration of the
solution being tested. We will standardize the ~0.1 M NaOH solution (the titrant) with
potassium hydrogen phthalate (KHP, KC8H4O4H) using phenolphthalein as the indicator.
KHP is a weak acid and reacts with base in the following way:

To Standardize:

1. Weigh ~0.8 g of dried KHP (MW = 204.23 g/mol) into an Erlenmeyer flask and
dissolve in 50-75 mL of distilled water. Record the amount of KHP and water
used.
2. Add 4 drops of indicator into the flask and titrate to the first permanent
appearance of pink. Near the endpoint, add the NaOH dropwise to determine the
total volume most accurately.
3. Calculate the concentration of NaOH in the following way:

Calculate Concentration of KHP:

Calculate Concentration of NaOH:

Remember: There are 1000 mL in a L and 1000 mg in a gram.

4. Report the concentration of NaOH to the class. An average number will be

determined to give the most reliable value of NaOH concentration. Do not
discard the remaining NaOH – you will use this for the rest of these experiments.
Standardizing an HCl Solution

In a titration, it is critical to know the exact concentration of the titrant (the solution in the
buret which will be added to the unknown) in order to determine the concentration of
solutions being tested. We will standardize the ~0.1 M HCl solution (the titrant) with
sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) using phenolphthalein as the indicator. Na2CO3 is a base and
reacts with the strong acid HCl in the following way:

To Standardize:

1. Weigh ~0.2 g Na2CO3 into an Erlenmeyer flask and dissolve it in 50 mL of

boiled, cooled distilled water. Record the exact amount of Na2CO3 used in your
notebook. (The water is boiled to expel CO2 from the solution.)
2. Add 4 drops of phenolphthalein to the solution and record the color.
3. Titrate with the HCl until just before the endpoint (when the solution is very light
pink) and then gently boil the solution to expel the CO2 from solution that has
been produced during the reaction (see eq 4).
4. Cool the solution to room temperature and then wash the sides of the flask with a
small amount of H2O to get all of the sample back into solution.
5. Finish the titration (this will take VERY little HCl so go slow!)
6. Record the color of the solution and the volume of HCl used.
7. Calculate the concentration of HCl in the following way:

This material was developed through the Cornell Science Inquiry Partnership program ([Link] with
support from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) program
(DGE # 0231913 and # 9979516) and Cornell University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.