Olivia Groeneveld

Kennedy Heath, Darian Meacham, Sydney Schelling

April 25, 2019
Acid-Base Titration Lab

PROBLEM: ​What will happen to the pH of the hydrochloric acid

(HCl) when sodium hydroxide is added?

HYPOTHESIS: ​If I add Sodium Hydroxide(NaOH) to Hydrochloric Acid(HCl), then the pH

will increase because the amount of bases and acids will become equivalent

VARIABLES & CONSTANTS:

Independent Variable: Amount of NaOH in the HCl solution
Dependent Variable: pH of HCl
Constants: mL of NaOH added to HCl, Amount of HCl in beaker

MATERIALS:
● Lab Quest
● Buret with Clamp
● pH sensor
● HCl solution
● 0.5M NaOH solution
● Phenolphthalein
● Funnel
● 2-150 mL beakers
● Ring stand

PROCEDURE:
1. Read the procedure carefully and ask your instructor any questions. When you are ready,
place your goggles over your eyes.
2. Get a 100 mL beaker containing 20.0mL of unknown HCl concentration from the
teacher. A phenolphthalein indicator has already been placed into your HCl solution.
3. Lift up the pH sensor and place the beaker containing the HCl under the drop counter.
Lower the pH sensor so that it is completely submerged in the beaker. Make sure the
beaker is centered under the buret opening.
 4. Make sure that the blue valve on your buret apparatus is horizontal (closed).
5. Obtain 40.0mL of 0.5M NaOH solution in a 250mL beaker from the teacher. ​ RECORD
the NaOH concentration in your data analysis table.
6. Place the funnel at the opening of the buret and pourthe 40 mL of 0.5M NaOH solution
into the buret.
7. Record the pH of the HCl at 0 mL. The pH should be between 0.1and 1.5. If not, tell the
teacher.
8. Turn the blue valve SLOWLY to a slight angle. DO NOT OPEN THE VALVE FULLY!
Allow ONE mL to go through the buret. Then, turn the blue valve horizontal (CLOSED).
You may need 1 student to turn and one student to watch the top of the buret for the 1 mL
mark.
9. Gently swirl the beaker of HCl. Then, record the pH value after 1 milliliter. Continue
this process until you have allowed all 40 mL of the NaOH to pass through the buret and
into the HCl.
10. Write observations about the color of the solution as more and more NaOH is added to
the HCl solution.
11. When, you have finished all 40 mL, close the blue valve by turning it horizontal.
12. Dispose of the chemicals according to your teacher’s directions.

OBSERVATIONS: ​Any time a mL of NaOH was added, the color would change for a moment
and then return to its original color. When the 17th mL is added, the color changes and it stays
that color . At first, the pH would decrease. When the 17th mL was added, the pH increased then
slightly decreases until the 27th-40th mL are added, the pH remains constant.

RESULTS TABLE:

Volume of NaOH pH Volume of NaOH pH

added (mL) added (mL)

0 5.85 21 8.30

1 5.83 22 8.30

2 5.8 23 8.29
 3 5.75 24 8.28

4 5.72 25 8.30

5 5.66 26 8.30

6 5.61 27 8.31

7 5.58 28 8.31

8 5.56 29 8.31

9 5.53 30 8.31

10 5.50 31 8.31

11 5.48 32 8.31

12 5.48 33 8.31

13 5.47 34 8.31

14 5.48 35 8.31

15 5.54 36 8.31

16 5.66 37 8.31

17 8.52 38 8.31
(Color Change)

18 8.36 39 8.31
 19 8.33 40 8.31

20 8.30

GRAPH
CALCULATIONS CHART
CONCLUSION:
The problem was what will happen to the pH of the Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) when sodium
hydroxide is added? The hypothesis that my group tested was if we added sodium hydroxide to
hydrochloric acid, then the pH will increase because the amount of bases and acids will become
equivalent. Our hypothesis was not supported because when you look at the data table, the pH
seems to decrease when adding the first 16 mL of sodium hydroxide but, when the 17th mL of
sodium hydroxide was added, the color changed and the pH increased then, when adding a
couple mL, it decreased once again then remained constant once the last 14 mL of sodium
hydroxide were added.

My percent error was -2.50%. The two sources of errors were we didn’t empty the buret all the
way and we added a little bit more than 1 mL by accident. When we tested the valve to see if it
worked, it didn’t empty all the way so we tried to empty it out in the sink but it still didn’t empty
all the way. This could affect the pH measurements and our results would be inaccurate. We
could’ve tried to empty it out completely before we started the lab instead of letting it stay in the
buret. Our second source of error was we accidently added a tiny bit more than 1 mL of Sodium
Hydroxide. When emptying the buret, the liquid was moving fast out of the buret so sometimes
we would close it too late. We could’ve watched the liquid while it was added so we could
measure it more accurately