Titration In Chemistry

Titration is a process by which the concentration of an unknown species is determined by reacting a certain amount of the unknown with another substance. It relies on the unknown being acidic or basic, and on the change of color of an indcator when the unknown is neutralized. Titration is used in medicine to determine the concentration of certain chemicals in blood or urine. It’s also used in IV drips to figure out the correct proportion of various drugs added, and in pharmaceuticals to correctly mix the right proportion of drugs.1

In this experiment, a strong acid, HCl, and a strong base, NaOH are used. A strong acid or base is one that is dissociated almost completely in water. The strength of an acid can be measured using the pH scale. A pH of over 7 means a

The tip of the probe is required to be kept moist, and the probe shouldn’t be pulled out of it’s cap., but the cap should be unscrewed, and the probe should be removed. A burettte is used to dispense the NaOH solution with great accuracy. The readings on the burette are written in the opposite direction of those on a graduated cylinder, and hence must be read carefully. A burette must be conditioned before use with deionized water and the chemical that will go into the burette, which is NaOH in this case. A burette is extremely useful for dispensing solution drop wise, and giving very accurate results. A volumetric pipette is used to very accurately 5 mL of HCl into the beaker that NaOH is dispensed into. Volumetric glassware is designed to give very accurate readings for one volume, and the volumetric pipette hence provides a very accurate volume of the unknown HCl solution. The breaker that the liquid is dispensed into during titration is kept on a hot plate with the heat off and the stirring on. Adding a stir bar to this beaker leads to more accurate results as the solution reacts more, and at a faster rate, when it’s being