NAME: SPANDAN AGARWAL

CLASS: XII
SECTION: B
ROLL NUMBER: 29
CHEMISTRY INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT
TOPIC: DISINFECTION AND
STERILIZATION
OF WATER USING BLEACHING
POWDER

TOPIC

PAGE
NUMBER
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
01
INTRODUCTION
02
BLEACHING POWDER
03
EXPERIMENT
04
APPARATUS REQUIRED
05
THEORY
06
PROCEDURE
07
OBSERVATION
08 09
CALCULATIONS
10
REFERENCES
11

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my

Chemistry teacher Mrs. Anjana Barari for providing
her proper and rigorous guidance for helping me
complete this investigatory project on the topic
Sterilization of water using bleaching powder. I am
grateful to my teacher and my friends for helping
me do the research and finalizing the investigatory
project.
I would also like to thank my family who have
been a constant source of inspiration and helped
me finalize and complete the investigatory project.

Water is the major constituent of all living beings. Water is necessary to sustain all types of life.
Humans need to drink water to survive. Our body is approximately 72 percent water, our brain is 70
percent water, and our lungs are nearly 90 percent water. Each day, our body must replace 2.4 liters or
about 2.5 quarts of water through ingested liquid and foods. The water used for drinking purposes by
human beings should fulfill the following conditions it should be colourless; it should not posses
any smell; it should not contain any harmful dissolved salts such as nitrates, nitrites, mercury salts,
lead salts: it should not contain any living organisms such as algae, fungi, bacteria, etc.
But with the increasing world population, the demand for drinking water has also increased
dramatically and therefore it is very essential to identify resources of water from which we can use
water for drinking purposes. Many available resources of water do not have it in drinkable form.

Either the water contains excess of Calcium or Magnesium salts or any other organic impurity or it
simply contains foreign particles which make it unfit and unsafe for Drinking.
In order to obtain water for drinking purposes, water is first treated with alum whereby clay and
other colloidal particles get precipitated. The suspended impurities are then removed by filtration and
the clear water obtained in subjected to some suitable treatment to destroy harmful germs and
bacteria. These bacteria cause many dangerous diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, etc. The
process of killing the harmful bacteria by some suitable treatment of water is called sterilization or
disinfection of water. The common sterilizing agents are chlorine, ozone, bleaching powder,
potassium permanganate, chloramines, etc. Sterilization of water can also be done by simple boiling
the water for about 15 minutes. However, this method can be applied only on a small scale. In the
present context, focus is on disinfection of water using bleaching powder. The chemical action of
bleaching powder on germs and bacteria is due to the chlorine which becomes available, when it is
added to water.

Calcium hypochlorite is an inorganic compound with formula Ca (ClO) 2. As a mixture

with lime and calcium chloride, it is marketed as chlorine powder or bleach
powder for water treatment and as a bleaching agent. This compound is relatively
stable and has greater available chlorine than sodium hypochlorite (liquid bleach).
Bleaching powder is not a simple mixture of calcium hypochlorite, calcium chloride,
and calcium hydroxide. Instead, it is a mixture consisting principally of calcium
hypochlorite Ca (OCl) 2, dibasic calcium hypochlorite, Ca3 (OCl) 2(OH) 4, and dibasic
calcium chloride, Ca3Cl2 (OH) 4. It is made from slightly moist slaked lime.
The bleaching process has been known for millennia, but the chemicals currently
used for bleaching resulted from the work of several 18th century
scientists. Chlorine is the basis for the most common bleaches: for example, the
solution of sodium hypochlorite, which is so ubiquitous that most simply call it
"bleach", and calcium hypochlorite, the active compound in "bleaching powder".

Oxidizing bleaching agents that do not contain chlorine are usually based
on peroxides such as hydrogen peroxide, sodium percarbonate and sodium perborate.
Bleaches are used as household chemicals to whiten clothes and remove stains and
as disinfectants, primarily in the bathroom and kitchen. Many types of bleach have
strong bactericidal properties, and are used for disinfecting and sterilizing and thus
are used in swimming pool sanitation to control bacteria, viruses and algae and in any
institution where sterile conditions are needed. They are also used in many industrial
processes, notably in the bleaching. Bleach is also used for removing mildew,
killing weeds and increasing the longevity of cut flowers. This chemical can be used
for sterilizing water by using 5 drops of bleach per each half gallon of water to be
purified, and allowing it to sit undisturbed for half an hour to make it safe for drinking.
Letting it sit several hours more will help reduce the chlorine taste, as the chlorine will
slowly evaporate out.

DETERMINATION OF THE
DOSAGE OF BLEACHING
POWDER
REQUIRED FOR
STERILISATION OR

i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
iii.
ix.
x.

DISINFECTION OF
DIFFERENT SAMPLES OF
WATER.

Burette
Titration flask
100 ml graduated cylinder
250 ml measuring flask
Weight box
Glazed tile
Glass wool
Bleaching powder
0.1N sodium thiosulphate solution
10% potassium iodide solution

xi. Different samples of water

xii. Starch solution

A known mass of the given sample of bleaching powder

is dissolved in water to prepare a solution of known
concentration. This solution contains dissolved chlorine,
liberated by the action of bleaching powder with water.
The amount of chlorine present in the above solution is
determined by treating a known volume of above
solution with excess of 10% potassium iodide solution,
when equivalent amount of iodine is liberated. This
iodine, thus liberated is then estimated by titrating
against a standard solution as indicator.
A known volume of one of the given samples of water is
treated with a known volume of bleaching powder
solution. The amount of residual chlorine is determined
by adding excess potassium iodide solution and then
titrating against standard sodium thiosulphate solution.
From the readings in the above two steps, the amount
of chlorine and hence bleaching powder required for
the disinfection of a given volume of the given sample
of water can be calculated.

1) Preparation of bleaching powder solution Weigh accurately 2.5 g of the given

sample of bleaching powder and transfer it to a 250 ml conical flask. Add about 100150 ml of distilled water. Stopper the flask and shake it vigorously. The suspension
thus obtained is filtered through glass wool and the filtrate is diluted with water to
make the volume 250 ml. The solution obtained is 1% bleaching powder solution.

2) Take 20 ml of bleaching powder solution in a stoppered conical flask and add to it 20

ml of 10% KI solution. Stopper the flask and shake it vigorously. Titrate this solution
against 0.1N NaSO solution taken in the burette. When the solution in the conical
flask becomes light yellow in colour, add about 2 ml of starch solution. The solution
now becomes blue in colour. Continue titrating till the blue colour just disappears.
Repeat the titration to get a set of three concordant readings.

3) Take 100ml of the water sample in a 250 ml stoppered conical flask and add to it 10
ml of bleaching powder solution. Then add 20 ml of KI solution and stopper the
flask. Shake vigorously and titrate against 0.1N NaSO solution using starch
solution as indicator as described in step 2.

4) Repeat the step 3 with other samples of water and record the observations.

Weight of the bleaching powder dissolved to prepare 250 ml of

solution = 2.5 g.
Titration 1: Bleaching powder solution against 0.1N NaSO solution
Volume of bleaching powder solution taken for each titration = 20.0
ml.
Volume of KI solution added = 20.0 ml.
SERIAL
NUMBER
01
02
03
04

BURETTE READINGS
INITIAL
FINAL
0
2.8
5.6
8.5

VOL OF 0.1N

NaSO
SOLUTION USED
2.8
2.8 ml
5.6
2.8 ml
8.5
2.9 ml
11.3
2.8 ml
Concordant Reading = 2.8 ml.

Titration 2:
Volume of water sample taken for each titration = 100 ml
Volume of bleaching powder solution added = 20.0 ml
Volume of KI solution added = 20.0 ml

SAMPLE NO. 01: TAP WATER

SERIAL
NUMBER

BURETTE READINGS
INITIAL
FINAL

VOL OF 0.1N
NaSO

01
02
03

0
0.9
1.8

SOLUTION USED
0.9
0.9 ml
1.8
0.9 ml
2.7
0.9 ml
Concordant Reading = 0.9 ml. (say x)

SAMPLE NO. 02: POND WATER

SERIAL
NUMBER
01
02
03
04

BURETTE READINGS
INITIAL
FINAL
0
0.3
0.6
1.0

VOL OF 0.1N

NaSO
SOLUTION USED
0.3
0.3 ml
0.6
0.3 ml
1.0
0.4 ml
1.3
0.3 ml
Concordant Reading = 0.3 ml. (say x)

SAMPLE NO. 03: DRAIN WATER

SERIAL
NUMBER
01
02
03
04
05

BURETTE READINGS
INITIAL
FINAL
0
0.1
0.2
0.4
0.6

VOL OF 0.1N

NaSO
SOLUTION USED
0.1
0.1 ml
0.2
0.1 ml
0.4
0.2 ml
0.6
0.2 ml
0.7
0.1 ml
Concordant Reading = 0.1 ml. (say x)

Amount of bleaching powder used to disinfect 100 ml of water samples

= (2.8 x) ml of o.1N NaSO

1 ml of bleaching powder solution contains bleaching powder = 2.5/250

= 0.01 g.
10 ml of bleaching powder solution = 2.8 ml of o.1N NaSO
1 ml of NaSO solution = 10/2.8 ml = 3.57 ml of bleaching powder
solution
Volume of bleaching powder solution required to disinfect 100 ml of
water samples
= (2.8 x) x 3.57 ml
(2.8 x) x 3.57 ml of bleaching powder solution = (2.8 x) x 3.57 x 0.01 g
of bleaching powder
Amount of bleaching powder required to disinfect 1 litre of water
samples
= (2.8 x) x 3.57 x 0.01 x 1000/100 = (2.8 x)/2.8 g.
SAMPLE NO. 1: (2.8 0.9)/2.8 g = 0.678g.
SAMPLE NO. 2: (2.8 0.3)/2.8 g = 0.893g.
SAMPLE NO. 3: (2.8 0.1)/2.8 g = 0.964g.
RESULT:Amount of the given sample of bleaching powder required to disinfect
one litre of water
1)SAMPLE NO. 1: 0.678g
2) SAMPLE NO. 2: 0.893g.
3) SAMPLE NO. 3: 0.964g.

The various sources used to get the

information and pictures for the given
investigatory project are as follows:

Class 12 Comprehensive Practical

Chemistry for class 12.
Wikipedia.
www.google.com.
www.bing.com.
Old books.