Identification of an Unknown Weak Acid

The first 200 words of this essay...

Analytical Chemistry Laboratory 319

Experiment 7:

Identification of an Unknown Weak Acid

Formal Report

Bonnie LaPierre

Drawer G-1

Lab Date:

Thursday March 13, 2008

INTRODUCTION:

One of the more common reactions seen in chemistry is the acid/base reaction. The most common result of an acid/base reaction is the formation of water and a salt. Such a reaction can be highly useful in the analysis of an unknown acid or base. By titrating the unknown analyte with a standard reagent, several characteristics of the unknown can be determined, as well as the identity of the analyte itself.

One important aspect of an acid/base reaction is the pH of the solution. Since an acid/base reaction is often performed by titrating an acid with a basic solution (or vice versa), monitoring the pH during the titration shows how the acidity is changing as reagent is added. By recording these pH values during the course of the reaction, a titration curve can be generated; from this curve, several characteristics of the reaction can be determined such as equivalence point(s), pKa(s), and end point(s), etc.

In this experiment, the objective