CAPE Chemistry U2 Lab - Acid Base Titrations (SAMPLE)

CAPE CHEMISTRY UNIT 2 LAB
Topic: Acid-Base Titrations

Skill: PD
Problem Statement:
The development of biodiesel fuel is currently an ongoing research matter, in which vegetable oil
is treated with lye (NaOH or caustic soda) to create biodiesel fuel. Oils consist of various
amounts of acid that need to be determined so that researchers can decide the amount of lye they
can add to make the final fuel. However, before the lye is added, the vegetable oil is titrated to
find out how much free acid is present so that the amount of lye added can be adjusted to take
into consideration the amount needed to neutralize these free acids. This subsequently means that
acid-base titration techniques in non-aqueous solvents are effective in finding out how much free
acid is present in vegetable oil.
Design an acid-base titration experiment to find out how much free acid is present in vegetable
oil. Note that acid value (Av) is an important indicator of vegetable oil quantity. Av is expressed
as the amount of KOH (in milligrams) necessary to neutralize free fatty acids contained in 1g of
oil.
Hypothesis: A very large amount of free acid is present in vegetable oils.
Aim: To determine the amount of free acid present in vegetable oil by performing an acid-base
titration.
Materials and Apparatus: gloves, lab coat, goggles (for eye protection), electronic scale,
isopropyl alcohol, measuring cylinder, indicator (phenolphthalein), conical flask, 0.1N potassium
hydroxide solution (KOH), burette, burette stand, vegetable oil, dropper, stopwatch.
Procedure:
1. Put on all protective gear (lab coat, gloves, goggles).
2. Place a conical flask on the electronic scale then zero it. Then pour out weight of approximately
1g of vegetable oil into the conical flask. Label this flask A.
3. Add 125ml of isopropyl alcohol into the conical flask containing vegetable oil. Then add 3-4
drops of the phenolphthalein indicator to the solution and swirl this conical flask to ensure that
particles are evenly distributed throughout.
4. Label another flask B and repeat steps 2 and 3 using this flask.
5. Prepare a blank/reference sample by repeating steps 2 and 3 in another conical flask but without
using vegetable oil. This is to determine the concentration of another chemical.
6. Fill the burette with the potassium hydroxide solution and record the initial volume. Then slowly
titrate sample A against the KOH. Stop the titration when the first permanent pink color change
occurs. Then record the final volume.
7. Repeat step 6 for sample B and for the reference sample.
8. Using the collected data, calculate the acid value, the acid number, and the free fatty acid
content.
Variables:
➢ Controlled - Concentration of KOH
➢ Manipulated - 2 samples contained vegetable oil and the reference sample did not.
➢ Responding - Volume of KOH used during titration.
Data Collected:
TABLE SHOWING WEIGHT OF THE TITRANT SOLUTION AND THE VOLUME OF KOH
USED
Samples Volume of KOH/ cm3 Weight of each

solution
Initial Final Used sample/ g
A 1
B 1
Blank 1
Expected Results:
It is expected that the volume of KOH used up during the titrations of samples A and B is far
greater than the volume of KOH used during the titration of the reference sample. This would
indicate that a large content of free fatty acids is present in vegetable oil as a large amount of
alkali (KOH) would be required in order to neutralize the acid. The Acid value would be
calculated using the formula, Av = (WKOH used × VKOH used × N ) ÷ Wsol, where N is the
concentration of KOH (0.1), WKOH used is 56.1g, and Wsol is the overall weight of the sample. Free
fatty acid content and acid value are directly proportional, therefore, if the acid value is low then
so is the free fatty acid content. If the acid value of A and B are far higher than that of the blank
sample (which does not contain vegetable oil), then it can be concluded that there is a large
amount of free fatty acid present in vegetable oil.
Limitations:
❖ There might be some excess KOH being used up during the titration as a result of the tapped not
being stopped exactly at the first permanent color change.
Sources of Error:
❖ If the tap is leaking then there might be some inaccuracies in the readings taken of the volume of
KOH being used up.

CAPE Chemistry U2 Lab - Acid Base Titrations (SAMPLE)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CAPE Chemistry U2 Lab - Acid Base Titrations (SAMPLE)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

CAPE Chemistry U2 Lab - Acid Base Titrations (SAMPLE)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CAPE CHEMISTRY UNIT 2 LAB

Topic: Acid-Base Titrations

Hypothesis: A very large amount of free acid is present in vegetable oils.

Samples Volume of KOH/ cm3 Weight of each

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.