In this lab, we did a titration experiment. We use strong acid and base solution in the titration process.

For
acid, we used HCL, or Hydrochloric acid, as the solution on the bottom, so it is being titrated. Hence, we
don’t know the acid concentration. Therefore, by doing titration we can find out its PH values and, hence,
its hydronium concentrations. We use base solution as the titration base, therefore it will be in the Burette
– the experimental equipment where we use it to drop the solution inside of it. The acid will be situated in
the Erlenmeyer flask, also known as the conical flask. The base of this solution that we will use it NaOH,
also known as Sodium Hydroxide. The initial concentration of the hydroxide ions of the base solution is
0.048M. Because we know the initial molarity of the base solution we can find out the PH or the
concentration of the acid later on by calculating the mole ratio, and by using the indicators. The indicator
will tell us when is the end point of the titration. When the color changes, we know that the titration has
finished, hence, we will know the PH, because each indicator changes color at a specific range. Therefore,
when it change color we can find out it PH by comparing the color to then PH scale of that indicator. With
this given characteristic, we will drop some of it into the acid solution that located under the burette in the
conical flask. Because, we can see the change of color slowly, as it approach the end point of the titration.
Putting the indicator inside the burette would be absurd, since not all of it will be in the combined solution,
hence it concentration will be diluted.

From the experiment, we used two indicators. The first one is Phenolphthalein and the second, is
Bromophenol Blue. The result goes as follow, for Phenolphthalein we used around 10.22 ml of bases to
complete the titration. Therefore, with the given amount of base molarity we can work out the acid
concentration as follow.
𝑛
𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑎𝑂𝐻, 𝐶 =
𝑣
𝑛
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒, 0.048 =
0.01022
𝐻𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑛 = 4.9056 x 10 − 4 mol
The form the equation of neutralization we have,
𝐻𝐶𝑙 + 𝑁𝑎𝑂𝐻 = 𝑁𝐴𝐶𝐿 + 𝐻2 𝑂
Because strong acid and base dissociate completely, we don’t have to have concerns about left over reactant.
𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝐶𝐿 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑁𝑎𝑂𝐻 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒, 1: 1

𝐻𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 4.9056 x 10−4 mol: 4.9056 x 10−4 mol

Because we know the mole of the sued acid in the reaction , we can work out the initial concentration of
the acid solution by using the following formula.

𝑛 10−4
𝐶= , 𝐶 = 4.9056 x
𝑣 0.01
𝐻𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 0.049056
𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝐻 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑏𝑦 − log(0.049056) , 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 3.014
In the second round of the experiment we used Bromophenol instead of Phenolphthalein. The result goes
as follows, we used 10.6 ml of base, therefore we can also use it to calculate back the PH. We can condense
the formula in one simple line as this,
1
𝐶𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 × 𝑉𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 ×
𝑉𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑑
0.048 ×0.0106
≈ 0.05088
0.01

− log 0.05088 ≈ 2.978

However, our result is truly absurd and must be untrue for any every given circumstance but one, that is the
indicator used in the reaction is Bromothymol Blue. However, let’s discuss about scenario one first, which
is the indicator is Bromophenol Blue. As can be seen, Phenolphthalein changes color when the PH reaches
around 8 or 9, and that Bromophenol changes color when the PH reaches 4.4. This suggest that our result
is wrong, because push the PH up to 8 or 9 we have to use way greater base volume than to push the PH to
4.4 from unknown PH, but our according to our result, the different in volume is only different in 0.4
margin. Which is impossible. Furthermore, we use more base to titrate the acid solution to 4.4 than we use
base to titrate the solution that’s contain Phenolphthalein. Therefore, our result can not be true in this given
scenario, therefore we must measure the volume of base that we used wrong, or the base concentration is
not the same for the Bromophenol round, hence it is one of the human errors. In the second, scenario the
indicator is Bromothymol blue instead of Bromophenol Blue. We think this because that the Ph of the
solution will changes at 7 instead of 4.4 if we use Bromothymol Blue. Hence, the little difference in base
volume can be explained, since at 7 the titration curve slope it very steep, hence a drop can change a lot of
PH, therefore this will resolve our problem, however, as it turned out, the indicator used is actually
Bromophenol Blue therefore, it must be the first case. However, even with Bromophenol Blue, the
calculation will be off. This will happen due to the Ph change at 4.4 therefore there will be 2.6 acid
concentration left at the end point of the titration, therefore we cannot assume that the reaction is completely
neutralized, hence we cannot say that the mole ratio is 1:1.