QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SODA ASH BY DOUBLE-INDICATOR TITRATION

Submitted By: Frances Abegail G. Quezon

This experiment aims to quantify the CO 32- and HCO3 – components of soda ash
using double-indicator titration. Double-indicator titration, as the name suggests makes use
of 2 indicators in the titration process. The indicators used in this experiment are
phenolphthalein and methyl orange. Titration is a process where one substance of known
properties (titrant) is carefully added to the unknown substance (analyte) until a complete
reaction has occurred. [1]
The distilled water was boiled before solution preparation in order to remove the
carbon dioxide in the water as this would react with NaOH in the reaction below and
interfere in the titration process and give incorrect results. [3] The boiling process was done
again in between the titration processes for the same reason. To remove CO 2 from the
solution since it will affect the pH of the solution. As demonstrated by the experiment,
before boiling, the orange solution indicates that the endpoint is already reached, but after
boiling, this was proven to be false as the solution returned to yellow-orange.
CO2 + NaOH  NaHCO3 (1)
The aforementioned reaction is the reaction for carbonate error. Carbonate error
is when carbon dioxide is absorbed by NaOH. This is caused by failure to boil the water used
for solution preparation. CO2 causes the pH of the substance to rise, thus needing more
titrant in the titration process. In the standardization step, this would cause the computed
molarity of HCl to decrease and in the analysis of sample, the computed moles of carbonate
and bicarbonate would increase.
NaOH is incompatible with NaHCO3 because in a basic solution, HCO 3 – forms CO32-
meaning that a solution of NaOH and NaHCO 3 will just form Na2CO3. Below is the reaction for
this:
HCO3 - + OH-  H2O + CO32- (2)
On all trials, V2 is always greater than V1 meaning that there are both NaHCO3 and
Na2CO3 in the solution. A primary standard is a stable and high-purity material used in
solution preparation, titrations, and to determine the concentration of substances. [4] It’s
characteristics are: purity, no waters of hydration, and has a high molecular weight. [5]
Because of this, NaOH cannot be used as a primary standard in replacement of Na 2CO3 since
first of all, NaOH has a molecular weight of only approximately 40 g/mol in comparison to
160 g/mol of Na2CO3. Also, NaOH has the tendency to absorb CO 2 in the air, thus making it
impure and cannot be used for the standardization process. [3] Because of this Na2CO3 with a
percent purity of 99.9% was used instead. Using this standard, the average molarity of HCl
calculated is 0.05378M.
Basic solutions cannot be stored in volumetric glassware since the hydroxide ions
in bases would react with the silicon material in the glassware thus forming wrong products
and lessening the lifespan of the glassware. [6]
Tabulated below are possible sources of errors in the experiment with the affected
parameters:
Table 1. Sources of Errors

Error Parameter Effect

Accidentally touching the Calculated molarity of HCl Decrease
vial during weighing
Very slight over-titration Amount of Increase
carbonate/bicarbonate
 Carbonate error Amount of Increase
carbonate/bicarbonate
Carbonate error Calculated molarity of HCl Decrease

Both CO32- and HCO3 – was successfully quantified in the experiment. The moles of
the components of soda ash were determined through using stoichiometry on the volume of
HCl needed in the titration process. The average percent composition of Na 2CO3 of the soda
ash sample is 42.0% while the NaHCO 3 component is 66.2%. Upon addition of the two
percent values we get a value more than 100%. This could be accounted by the table of
errors presented above. The experiment is generally considered to be a success since the
composition of the soda ash sample was successfully quantitatively and qualitatively
determined.

REFERENCES
[1]Harris, D. Quantitative Chemical Analysis 5th ed. W.H. Freeman and Company: New York,
2001.
[2]Institute of Chemistry. Quantitative Inorganic Analysis Laboratory Manual .
[3] Jiskha. http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1182554858 (accessed May 1, 2013).
[4] Super Glossary. http://www.superglossary.com/Definition/Chemistry/
Primary_Standard.htm (accessed May 1, 2013).
[5] Chemicool. http://www.chemicool.com/definition/primary_standards.html (accessed
May 1, 2013).
[6] Chempages.
http://chem.wisc.edu/deptfiles/genchem/lab/labdocs/modules/volflask /volflaskdesc.htm
(accessed May 1, 2013.)
[7] Arkansas Tech University. faculty.atu.edu/abhuiyan/Course/Chem%203245/Chapter%
2016.ppt (accessed May 1, 2013).