ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

EXPERIMENT 4

ACID BASED TITRATION I

DETERMINATION OF PERCENT CONTENT OF ACETIC ACID IN VINEGAR

Purpose

To determine the content percent of acetic acid in vinegar.

Introduction

Vinegar is a diluted solution of acetic acid. Commercial vinegar should contain about 4-6
% of acetic acid (CH3COOH). The acetic acid content in vinegar can therefore be
determined through titration method using a standard solution of a base for example the
standard solution of NaOH. In this experiment, the acetic acid content in different brands of
commercial vinegar is to be determined by titrating them with NaOH solution that has
previously been standardized using a secondary standard solution of HCl (prepared in
Experiment 2).

Apparatus Chemical Reagents

250 mL volumetric flask 3 brands of commercial Vinegar
Retort stand NaOH pellet
White tile Phenolphthalein – indicator
250 mL conical flask (x3)
20 mL pipette
Burette

Procedure

A. Preparation of NaOH solution and standardization of NaOH

1. Calculate the mass needed to prepare 250 mL 0.1 M NaOH solution.

2. Prepare the NaOH solution using the same procedure as in Experiment 2
(preparation of Na2CO3 solution).
3. Fill the burette with NaOH solution.
4. Pipette 20.0 mL of the HCl (from Exp. 3) into 250 mL conical flask. Add 2 – 3
drops of phenolphthalein as indicator.
5. Titrate the HCl in the conical flask with the NaOH from the burette slowly while
shaking the flask until the indicator color change. Record the color change and
your reading at the end point of the titration.
6. Repeat 2 - 3 times and record all your readings in a table.
7. Calculate the exact molarity of the NaOH solution

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B. Determination of acetic acid in vinegar

1. Pipette 10 mL of the given vinegar (record the brand name of the chosen vinegar)
and dilute to mark with distilled water in a 100 mL volumetric flask.
2. Then pipette 20 mL of this diluted vinegar solution into a 250 mL conical flask.
Add 2 – 3 drops of phenolphthalein as an indicator.
3. Titrate the vinegar in the conical flask with the NaOH from the burette slowly
while shaking the flask until the indicator changes color.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 two more times.
5. Record your reading at the end point of the titration.
6. Calculate the w/v % of acetic acid in the vinegar sample.

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EXPERIMENT 4

ACID BASED TITRATION I

1. State the objective of the experiment.

2. Describe the procedure to determine acetic acid in vinegar (in brief).

3. Results / Data

A. Standardization of NaOH solution

Table 1: Titration of HCl with NaOH

Titration Rough 1 2 3
Final burette reading
Initial burette reading
Volume of NaOH used

Average volume of NaOH: .........................

Exact molarity of HCl solution from Experiment 3: …………..

B. Determination of acetic acid in vinegar

Brand of vinegar used:…………………………………………

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Table 3.2: Titration of vinegar with NaOH

Titration 1 2 3 4
Final burette reading
Initial burette reading
Volume of NaOH used

Average volume of NaOH: .........................

4. Questions

a) Write a balanced equation for the reaction between NaOH and HCl.

b) Using the data above and the stoichiometric ratio from the equation, calculate the
exact molarity of the NaOH solution.

c) Write the chemical equation for the reaction between acetic acid (CH3COOH) and
NaOH solution.

d) Determine the w/v % of acetic acid in the vinegar sample.

i) Using (MaVa / MbVb) = a/b, determine the molarity of the diluted acetic acid.

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