Titration of Sodium Carbonate using Different Indicators and Determination of pKa’s

 


Class: BE210
Group: R5
Members:       FACILITATOR…………………………Toby Tisserand

                        TIME & TASK KEEPER………………Elizabeth Kim
 
                         SCRIBE………………………………...David Gao

                         PRESENTER…………………………..Alan Doucette

Date: May, 2001

Full Text

Abstract:
HCl of known concentration was titrated against a solution of Na2CO3.  Different indicators, including a universal indicator, were used to signal the stoichiometric equivalence point between carbonic acid [99.9%] and bicarbonate ion.  Agreement of the amount of HCl needed to neutralize a set amount of Na2CO3 to the amount expected with the measured value to better than 0.5% was attempted.  The pKa values of Na2CO3 were also determined.  The effect of the regulation of temperature on the value of the equilibrium constants were determined.  The percent difference and confidence intervals were compared to determine the best indicator for this titration.  The 95% confidence intervals were analyzed to compare the precision of the values obtained under temperature regulation and non-regulated temperature conditions.  In the Na2CO3-HCl titration, the use of methyl orange as the indicator and the desiccation of Na2CO3 allowed an accuracy of within 0.00501% in the amount of Na2CO3 used in the titration.  The actual amount added was 0.012475 moles, while the experimentally derived amount was 0.0125 moles with a 95% confidence interval of ±0.0000460 moles.  For Na2CO3 pKa determination, the pKa1 values for unregulated temperature was 6.362±0.0789; for regulated temperature pka1 was 6.407±0.0326.  They were both significantly the same as the literature value.  However, for pKa2 the unregulated trials measured was 10.45±0.0241, while the regulated set was 10.37±0.123.  They were found to be significantly different and too imprecise to compare.