Finding the Ka of Ethanoic Acid

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Finding the Ka of Ethanoic Acid

Aim:

====

To find out the Ka of ethanoic acid, chloroethanoic acid and

dichloroethanoic acid.

Procedure:

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1. The pH meter is calibrated, using a buffer solution of accurately

known pH.

2. 20.0cm3 of 0.10M ethanoic acid was pipetted into a conical flask.

3. 0.10M sodium hydroxide solution was titrated using phenolphthalein

as indicator, until the solution was just turned pink.

4. A further 20.0cm3 of the same ethanoic acid solution was added to

the flask and was mixed thoroughly.

5. The pH of the resulting solution was determined.

Result:

=======

Volume of NaOH used is recorded below:

Trial (cm3)

1st time (cm3)

Initial burette reading

3.55

18.4

Final burette reading

22.8

36

Titre

19.25

17.6

pH

Chloroethanoic acid

3.0

Dichloroethanoic acid

2.2

Ethanoic acid

4.6

pH of chloroethanoic acid and dichloroethanoic acid is given by the

teacher.

Calculation:

============

Ka =

1. It is reasonable to make the following assumptions:

[HX] » total acid concentration

[X-] » total salt concentration

because CH3COOH is a weak acid which is only slightly ionized and thus

contributed only a little bit to total salt concentration. Therefore

[HX] tends to total acid concentration, and [X-] is mostly contributed

by the salt resulting from neutralization.

Using these assumptions, we have:

[H+] » Ka

2. If the concentrations of the acid and salt in the mixture are

equal, then:

[H+] » Ka ´ 1

[H+] » Ka

3. [H+] = Ka

-log Ka = -log [H+]

pKa = pH

4. The aim of neutralization is to neutralize all the acid, and make

the concentration of the salt same as the concentration of the 20.0cm3

acid. Therefore the titre need not be exactly 20.

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