Chemistry 135 Clark College

THE STANDARDIZATION OF NaOH and KHP ASSAY

A Weak Acid/Strong Base Titration
For this experiment:
• Prepare your lab notebook with a purpose and procedure summary. Also, calculate
how much KHP is required for 5 titrations (see the first problem on the prelab). It may
also be helpful to prepare a data table, such as the table on the Data Report Sheet.
You must get these pages initialed by a lab instructor, with your prelab.
• Complete the prelab and get it stamped by the lab instructor before you begin to work
on the experiment.
• Titrate your solutions to a pale pink. No more magenta solutions!
• Perform 4 titirations and determine the mean Normality of NaOH, the standard
deviation, and the RSD for your data. Your values must have an RSD ≤ 5 ppth for
this experiment.
• Enter your mean NNaOH on the spreadsheet at the Instructor station. Complete the data
report sheet at the end of the packet. No stamp is needed.
Turn in only the Data Report Sheet, your Notebook Sheets, and the Stamped Prelab!!

You will determine the exact normality of an NaOH solution by standardizing the NaOH against
a primary standard (KHP). This NaOH solution will be used in later experiments.
Introduction and Method
In this experiment you will determine the concentration of a sodium hydroxide solution to a
high degree of accuracy. This process is called standardization and the resulting solution is a
standard solution. That is, a standard solution is one having an accurately known
concentration.

In order to determine the concentration of the sodium hydroxide solution, one must have an
especially pure acid so that an accurately measured amount of acid can be weighed out on the
analytical balance. The weight of this acid is the starting point for all subsequent calculations
and it is therefore called the primary standard.

In general, a primary standard is any especially pure chemical that can be used as the starting
point to quantify an analysis. Few chemicals are pure enough and stable enough to be used
as primary standards. For example, solid sodium hydroxide cannot be used as a primary
standard because it absorbs atmospheric moisture and carbon dioxide during storage and also
during a weighing operation. A primary standard should have the following qualities:
a. It must be easily prepared, purified and dried.
b. It must be stable and easily stored.
c. So it can be weighed in open air, it must not be hygroscopic. It must not react with any
of the components of air such as carbon dioxide, oxygen or water.
d. Suitable methods must be available to test it for impurities. Generally, the total
impurities must be less than 0.01-0.02%. The exact assay (i.e., the percent purity) must
be known.
e. The reaction for which the primary standard is to be used must be quantitative and must
be fast enough that it goes to completion in a reasonable period of time.
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With such a long list of requirements, it is understandable that few substances can be used as
primary standards.
To determine the concentration of a sodium hydroxide solution through a titration, the primary
standard must be an acid. In the present experiment, potassium hydrogen phthalate (KHP =
KC8H5O4) will be used.

The net ionic equation for the titration is:

Since one mole of KHP reacts with one mole of OH- ions, the equivalent weight is equal to the
gram formula weight of KHP (204.22 g/mol).
Sources of Error
a. Beginning students in quantitative analysis are sometimes surprised how careful one must
be in order to obtain accuracy within a few parts per thousand. Apparatus used must be
scrupulously clean. There must be absolutely no loss of material through spillage,
splashing or splattering.
b. Reading errors. It is easy to read the balance or the buret wrong. Check each reading
carefully.
c. Your buret must run clean. Be sure there are no air bubbles under the stopcock of your
buret.
d. Alkaline solutions absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere according to the reaction:
- 2-
CO2 + 2OH CO3 + H2O
Since hydroxide ion is consumed by this reaction, the concentration of a standard sodium
hydroxide solution will be changed. Precautions must be taken to protect the standard
alkali solution from the carbon dioxide that is always present in the atmosphere. During
titration the sodium hydroxide in the buret is exposed to the air; therefore the buret should
not be prepared for use until it is needed, and fresh sodium hydroxide should be added if it
has stood in the buret for more than about 20 minutes. Never take more NaOH from the
carboy than is needed for ONE titration! Take only as much NaOH as needed to fill or
refill your buret. Tap water and even deionized water may contain dissolved carbon
dioxide. To remove the CO2, water may be boiled for about three minutes.
e. One of the most common causes of poor grades in the quantitative analysis laboratory is
arithmetic error in the calculations.

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Standardization of 0.1 N Sodium Hydroxide Solution

Dry primary standard potassium hydrogen phthalate, KHP, (a.k.a., potassium biphthalate,
a.k.a., potassium acid phthalate) at 110°C for two hours. This has been done for you! You will
not need to dry the KHP before you do the experiment. The technique information remains for
your learning pleasure.

Technique tip for drying and weighing samples.

Place your sample in a weighing bottle and put the weighing bottle, sample and lid into a
beaker. Write your name on a small piece of paper and place it in the beaker with your
sample. Place a watch glass over the top of the beaker so dirt will not fall into the sample and
put the whole thing in the oven. When you remove the beaker and sample (use gloves!), place
the sample with cap into a desiccator with dry desiccant to cool, ~1hr. Be careful not to
contaminate your sample. The desiccator should have a light coating of grease or petroleum
jelly on contact surface with the lid to keep from having air exchange.

Weighing by difference involves weighing the weighing bottle, sample, and cap on the
Analytical balance, then dispensing a small amount of sample by carefully pouring some
sample from the weighing bottle into a second container. Put the lid back on and reweigh the
sample and container. The difference between these two masses is the amount of sample
transferred to the flask or beaker. You should handle the sample (weighing) bottle and lid only
with kim wipes (or tongs) to avoid fingerprints, which can affect your masses.

Weigh out four samples of KHP (to 0.1 mg by difference) into four 250-mL Erlenmeyer flasks.
You calculated the approximate mass in your prelab. Dissolve each sample in about 50 mL of
distilled water before you titrate the sample. Add five drops of phenolphthalein indicator and
titrate with constant swirling to the first appearance of a permanent pink color (see Notes 1 –
3). Read your buret to the nearest 0.01 mL.

Calculate the normality of the sodium hydroxide solution from each titration, and determine the
mean, standard deviation and the RSD. Report your results on the form provided.

If you feel that one trial is errant, you may apply the Q-test to any divergent results (see Note
4). Remember: a data point must fail both the Q-Test and the 5 ppth test to be rejected. If you
discard any data on the basis of the Q-test and 5 ppth test, show these calculations on the
back of your report and circle the rejected data. The normality must be reported with the
proper number of significant figures (ppth).

Enter your data into the spreadsheet on the computer in the Laboratory. It is to your
advantage to always do the calculations before cleaning up and leaving.

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NOTES
Note 1:
The end point is the faintest possible pink color. Place your Erlenmeyer flask on a sheet of
white paper to assist you in seeing this faint pink color. If you are not sure whether you have
reached the end point or not, record the volume of sodium hydroxide delivered and then add
another half drop of titrant. Rinse off any NaOH from the buret tip (with a jet of distilled water
from the wash bottle) into the Erlenmeyer flask after each addition of NaOH. If an easily
perceptible or bright pink color forms, take the preceding volume for the end point. Repeat this
procedure until the endpoint is reached.

The pink color must be permanent for at least 15 seconds. On longer standing, the color may
fade and disappear. It is therefore poor practice to try to match the color of the second and
third titrations with the first titration. One must watch for the change in color.

Note 2:
Many times, a "mixed indicator" solution is be used because of its more intense color change.
For example, a mixed indicator prepared with two parts of phenolphthalein and one part of
methylene green (a green dye) will have the following color change:

pH Phenolphthalein Mixed Indicator

8.0 Colorless Greenish-blue

8.8 Pale pink Greenish-blue
8.9 Pale pink Pale blue-gray
9.0 Pink Violet
9.8 Red-violet Deep violet

Note 3:
An end point is a color change that indicates when the right amount of titrant is added. The end
point is observable. The equivalence point is when the stoichiometric amount of titrant is added
to the analyte. In an acid base titration, it is when an equal number of moles of H+ and OH–-
react.

Note 4:
The Q-test must be applied with caution. For example, consider the following set of
normalities: 0.1006, 0.1006, 0.1006, 0.1008

Blind application of the Q-test would reject the value 0.1008. However, it differs from the other
three values by only two parts per thousand, and in fact is well within the limits of experimental
error expected in this titration. There is therefore no basis for rejecting the value 0.1008. In
the present case, if the range is less than five parts per thousand the suspected value should
be retained. (Refer to the Statistic Review Sheet for a more complete discussion of the Q-test
and the 5 ppth test.)

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APPENDIX

Concentration Units – Normality versus Molarity. Most titration calculations can be carried
out using either concentration units, N or M. Remember that normality is the number of
equivalents per liter of solution, where an equivalent is the number of active units per mole of
compound. Active units can be H+ or OH– for acid/base reactions or electrons for redox
reactions.

Example: A 1.5 M H2SO4 solution is 3.0 Normal, because there are 2 equivalents of H+ in
every mole of H2SO4.
1.5 mol H 2 SO 4 2 eq. 3.0 eq
* = = 3.0 N
L mol H 2 SO 4 L

Equivalent Weight- the equivalent weight of a compound is the mass of compound that can
supply one mole of active units (H+, OH–, e–’s).

Example: Determine the equivalent weight of barium hydroxide. The formula Ba(OH)2 has a
mass of 171.35 g/mol. Since barium hydroxide has 2 equivalents of OH– per mole,
the equivalent weight is 1/2 the molecular weight.
171.35g 1 mol Ba(OH)2 85.675 g
x -
=
mol 2 eq OH eq

SAMPLE CALCULATIONS

Weak Acid — Strong Base Titrations

The equivalence point of the titration occurs when the equivalents of base added exactly
equals the equivalents of acid in the flask or when moles of base units added exactly equals
the moles of acid units in the flask.
#. Equiv. base = (mL base)(1L/1000 mL)(N base)
The usefulness of normality in volumetric analysis is demonstrated with following:
at the equivalence point NAcidVAcid = NBaseVBase
To calculate the number of equivalents contained in a known acid sample, one needs the
sample mass, its purity, and its equivalent weight. The purity factor is simply the % in fractional
form.
sample weight(g) x purity factor
eq acid = or in more familiar form
equiv. wt.(g/eq.)

path: g sample  g acid  eq. acid

g acid eq acid
equiv. acid = g sample x x
100 g sample g acid

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Example: Determine the equivalents of acid in a 0.4567 g sample which is 92.15% pure citric
acid, a triprotic organic acid, C6H8O7.
Because citric acid is triprotic (3 H+/molecule), the Equivalent weight = MW/3
92.15 g acid 1 eq acid
eq acid = 0.4567 g sample x x = 0.006571 eq. acid
100 g sample 64.05 g acid

Example: Calculate the weight of primary standard potassium hydrogen phthalate

(assay = 99.95%) that would be required to standardize a 0.1 N NaOH solution,
assuming a 40 mL titration.
PATH: L NaOH  mol NaOH  mol KHP  g KHP  g sample
Note that 1 equiv = 1 mol for both KHP and NaOH so N = M and molecular weight = equivalent
weight.
0.1 eq NaOH 1 eq KHP 204.23 g KHP 100 g sample
0.040 L x x x x = 0.8 g sample
L 1 eq NaOH equiv KHP 99.95 g KHP
Therefore, a sample weight between 0.78 gram (which would require a 38 mL titration) and
0.86 gram (which would require a 42 mL titration) would be reasonable. The samples should
be weighed accurately to 0.1 mg (±0.0001g).

Example: An 0.8167 gram sample of primary standard KHP (assay = 99.95%) required
38.25 mL of NaOH to neutralize. Calculate the molarity of the NaOH solution.
PATH: g sample  g KHP  mol KHP  mol NaOH  M NaOH
99.95g KHP 1molKHP 1molNaOH 1
0.8167 g sample x x x x = 0.1040 M NaOH
100g sample 204.22g KHP 1molKHP 0.03825L

Example: A 1.7734 gram sample of KHP required 40.11 mL of 0.1036 N for titration.
Calculate the assay of the KHP and report with a relative error of 1 part per 1000.
0.1036molNaOH 1molKHP 204.22g KHP 1
0.04011 L x x x x x 100%
L 1molNaOH 1molKHP 1.7734g sample
= 47.8548% = 47.85% ± 0.05% (ppth precision)

Example: A 0.8676 gram sample of a pure organic acid required 38.69 mL of 0.1042 N NaOH
for equivalence. Calculate the equivalent weight of the acid, and report with a
relative error of 1 part per 1000.
1molNaOH 1L 1 215.2 g
MW = 0.8676g acid x x x =
1molacid 0.1042molNaOH 0.03869 L mol

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Chem 135 Standardization of NaOH DATA REPORT SHEET

Name ________________________

NaOH Carboy ID _______________

Trial 1 2 3 4 5 (if needed)

Weight KHP (g)

Volume NaOH (mL)

NaOH Normality

Average Normality

Standard deviation Class Normality

ppth difference between

RSD
your data and class data

NOTE: Report all Normality’s to part per thousand precision

If a sample is rejected by the Q-test and the 5 ppth test, circle the data for that sample, and put
the Q-test and 5 ppth calculations on the back of this report form. Make another measurement
to replace the rejected value and record it into the extra spot on your report form.
Sample Calculation for Normality of NaOH:

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Additional space for Calculations (Q-test, 5 ppth test)

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Chem 135 Standardization of NaOH PRELAB

Name ________________________

Using the equations attached to the experiment and all of your knowledge about reactions and
statistics answer the following questions.

1. Calculate the approximate weight of KHP required so that about 40 mL of 0.1 N sodium
hydroxide will be used in a titration. (E.W. KHP= 204.23 g/equiv.)

mass =

2. Calculate the molarity of a solution of monoprotic KHP prepared by mixing a 0.6237 g in

50.0 mL of water. (E.W. KHP= 204.23 g/equiv.)

M=

3. A 0.6237 g sample of KHP with a purity of 99.99% is titrated with 42.34 mL of NaOH
solution. From the data given, calculate the normality of base. Round your answer to the
appropriate number of significant figures based upon a precision of 1 ppth.

N=
– Over –

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4. Four values of the normality for a NaOH solution were found to be 0.09987 N, 0.09980 N,
0.09882 N and 0.09981 N. Round all values to ppth precision, and check to see if all
values should be retained, using the Q test and the 5 ppth test. Report all retained values
and calculate the mean, standard deviation and RSD.

"
"
"
"
"

Trial N NaOH

1 Mean:

2 Standard Deviation:

3 RSD (ppth):

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