Name: ______________________________________ Date: ________________________

Student Exploration: Titration

Vocabulary: acid, analyte, base, dissociate, equivalence point, indicator, litmus paper, molarity, neutralize, pH,
strong acid, strong base, titrant, titration, titration curve, weak acid, weak base

Gizmo Warm-up
Litmus is an example of an indicator, a substance that changes color depending
on its pH (pH is a measure of the concentration of protons, or H+ ions). In the
Titration Gizmo™, you will use indicators to show how acids are neutralized by
bases, and vice versa.

To begin, check that 1.00 M NaOH is selected for the Burette, Mystery HBr is
selected for the Flask, and Bromthymol blue is selected for the Indicator.

yellow
1. Look at the flask. What is the color of the bromthymol blue indicator? __________________

pH is below 6.0
2. What does this tell you about the pH of the solution in the flask? ______________________
Solutions with a pH below 7.0 are acidic, while those with a pH above 7.0 are basic.

3. Move the slider on the burette to the top to add about 25 mL of NaOH to the flask. What happens, and
what does this tell you about the pH of the flask?

the solution turns blue, indicating the pH is now above 7.6

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Get the Gizmo ready:

Activity A: • Click Reset. Select 1.0 M HNO3 for the Burette
and Mystery NaOH for the Flask.
Acids and bases
• Select Phenolphthalein for the Indicator.
• You will need a scientific calculator for this activity.

Introduction: When most acids dissolve in water, they dissociate into ions. For example, nitric acid (HNO3)
dissociates into H+ and NO3– ions.

1. Calculate: Concentration is measured by molarity (M), or moles per liter. Brackets are also used to
symbolize molarity. For example, if 0.6 moles of HNO3 are dissolved in a liter of water, you would say
[HNO3] = 0.6 M.

A. Because HNO3 is a strong acid, it dissociates almost completely in water. That means the
concentration of H+ is very nearly equal to that of HNO3.

What is [H+] if [HNO3] is 0.01 M? _________

0.01M

B. The pH of a solution is equal to the negative log of H+ concentration: pH = –log[H+]

2
What is the pH of this solution? (Use the “log” button on your calculator.) _________
0.22
C. What is the pH of a 0.6 M HNO3 solution? _________

(Activity A continued on next page)

Activity A (continued from previous page)

2. Describe: The equation for the reaction of nitric acid (HNO3) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is shown on the
bottom right of the Gizmo.
HNO3 and NaOH
A. What are the reactants in this reaction? ___________________________________
NaNO3 and H2O
B. What are the products of this reaction? ____________________________________

3. Measure: A titration can be used to determine the concentration of an acid or base by measuring the
amount of a solution with a known concentration, called the titrant, which reacts completely with a solution
of unknown concentration, called the analyte. The point at which this occurs is called the equivalence
point.

Carefully add HNO3 into the flask until the phenolphthalein begins to lose its color. Stop adding HNO3 when
the color change is permanent.

8.9 mL
A. How much (HNO3) was required to cause the indicator to change color? __________

B. What can you say about the pH before and after the last drop of HNO3 was added?
Before the last drop the pH was above 8.2. After the last drop the pH was below 8.2
_______________________________________________________________________________

4. Explore: Click Reset and change the indicator to Bromothymol blue. Add exactly 8.8 mL of HNO3 to the
flask.

the pH is above 7.6

A. What does the color of the indicator tell you about the current pH of the flask? _________________

B. Add one more drop (0.1 mL) of HNO3. What does the color tell you about the pH now? __________
the pH is below 6.0

C. If you combine the results of this question with the results from question 3B, what is the range of
total pH change caused by adding the last 0.1 mL of HNO3? (Hint: look at the minimum and
maximum pH needed to change the colors of both indicators.)
the last drop of HNO3 caused the pH to change from above 8.2 to below 6.0
___________________________________________________________________

5. Explain: A titration curve is a graph of pH vs. volume of titrant.

The graph at right shows a typical titration curve for the titration
of a strong acid by a strong base. (A strong base is one that
has relatively high dissociation in water.)

A. How would you describe the shape of the titration curve?

_____________________________________________
As titrant is added, at first the pH does not rise very
much. Near the equivalence point, the pH rises very
steeply
_____________________________________________
Volume titrant (mL)

B. Why do you think the titration curve has the shape it has? _________________________________
because the acid was neutralized and the pH rose sharply
_______________________________________________________________________________
 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity B:
• Click Reset. Select 1.00 M NaOH for the Burette
Determining
and Mystery H2SO4 for the Flask.
concentration
• Select Bromthymol blue for the Indicator.

Introduction: Adding a drop of strong acid or base into a neutralized solution is similar to adding a drop of
strong acid or base to water—it causes an abrupt change in pH. By using an appropriate indicator, a chemist
can tell when a solution is neutralized by monitoring its color.

1. Measure: Titrate the sulfuric acid analyte (H2SO4) with the sodium hydroxide titrant (NaOH).
21.6 mL
How much 1.00 M NaOH is needed to neutralize the H2SO4 solution? __________________

2. Interpret: The balanced equation for the reaction of H2SO4 and NaOH is given at bottom right.
2
Based on this equation, how many moles of NaOH react with 1 mole of H2SO4? __________
(Hint: Look at the coefficients in the reaction.)

3. Manipulate: Recall that molarity is equal to the number of moles of a substance dissolved in one liter of
solution: molarity = moles ÷ volume.

A. Rearrange the molarity formula to solve for moles of NaOH.

Moles NaOH = [NaOH] · mL NaOH / 1,000 mL

B. Write a similar expression for the number of moles of H2SO4.

Moles H2SO4 = [H2SO4] · mL H2SO4 / 1,000 mL

C. Because there are twice as many moles of NaOH as moles of H2SO4 in this reaction, you can say:
Moles NaOH = 2 · Moles H2SO4

Substitute your expressions from 3A and 3B into this equation and solve for [H2SO4] (molarity):

NaOH] · mL NaOH / 1,000 = 2 · [H2SO4] · mL H2SO4 /

1,000 mL [NaOH] · mL NaOH = 2 · [H2SO4] · mL
H2SO4 [H2SO4] = [NaOH] · mL NaOH 2 · mL H2SO4

0.108 M
D. Now calculate [H2SO4] based on the data from the Gizmo. [H2SO4] = ___________

E. What is the concentration of [H+]? _________

0.2
(Hint: Look at question 1 from Activity A.)

(Activity B continued on next page)

Activity B (continued from previous page)

4. Calculate: Check your work from #3 using the Gizmo. Select the Worksheet tab. This tab helps you
calculate the analyte concentration.
• Fill in the first set of boxes (“moles H2SO4” and “moles NaOH”) based on the coefficients in the
balanced equation. (If there is no coefficient, the value is 1.)
• Record the appropriate volumes in the “mL NaOH” and “mL H2SO4” boxes.
• Record the concentration of the titrant in the M NaOH box.

Click Calculate. What is the concentration listed? ___________________________

0.108 M

Click Check. Is this the correct concentration? ___________________________

yes

If you get an error message, revise your work until you get a correct value. (You may have to redo the
titration if you do not have the correct volume of titrant.)

5. Practice: Perform the following titrations and determine the concentrations of the following solutions. In
each experiment, list the volume of titrant needed to neutralize the analyte and the indicator used (you can
choose the indicator you want to use). Use the Worksheet tab of the Gizmo to calculate each analyte
concentration. Include all units.

Ion in Titrant Analyte

Titrant Analyte Indicator
Analyte volume concentration
0.70 M KOH HBr H+ blue 30ml 0.210
0.50 M HCl Ca(OH)2 OH- red 8.4ml 0.021
red
0.80 M H2SO4 NaOH OH- 5.6ml 0.090

6. Apply: Once you know the concentration of a strong acid or a strong base, you can estimate its pH. Use pH
= –log10[H+] to calculate the pH of each of the strong acid mystery solutions (Mystery HBr and Mystery
H2SO4) based on the concentrations you determined in questions 4 and 5. Check your answers with the
Gizmo. (Because dissociation is not always complete, your answers may vary slightly from values in the
Gizmo.)

[H2SO4] = ________
0.108 pH H2SO4 = _________
0.967 [HBr] = _________
0.210 pH HBr = _________
0.678
(from question 3D) (from question 5)

7. Apply: For a strong base, the concentration of hydroxide ions [OH–] is roughly estimated to be the same as
the concentration of the base. The pOH of a strong base is found with the equation pOH = –log10[OH-].

Then pH is calculated by the equation, pH = 14 – pOH. Based on their concentrations, find the pOH and pH
of each of the strong bases.
0.021
[Ca(OH)2] = ________ pOH Ca(OH)2 = _____
12.32 pH Ca(OH)2 = _____
12.32
[NaOH] = __________
0.090 pOH NaOH = _____
12.95 pH NaOH = _____
12.95