Introduction:

Melanie’s mom own’s a pepper sauce making business, One day she noticed that she had no
vinegar to make the pepper sauce with, so she sent Melanie to the supermarket to purchase
besties vinegar. While walking brands of vinegar were 5% concentration and besties was not the
lowest price point, plan and design an experiment to help Melanie make the best decision.

Hypothesis:
Vinegar brands A, B and C have the same concentration of ethanoic acid.
Aim:
To find the concentration of ethanoic acid in 3 different brands of vinegar.
Apparatus and Materials:
 3 Brands of vinegar
 0.1moldm-3 standardize NaOH
 Phenolphthalein indicator
 25 cm3 pipette
 250 cm3 granulated flask
 Two 50 cm3 burettes
 Three conical flasks

Procedure:
 Using a burette, 25.00cm3 of vinegar was placed in a 250 cm3 graduated flask
 The contents of the gradulated flask to the mark was.made up using distilled water
and mixed thoroughly.
 The diluted vinegar was placed within a second burette
 25.0 cm of standardized sodium hydroxide was pipetted
into a conical flask and titrated with the diluted vinegar
using phenolphthalein indicator.
 The titration was reapeated 1-4 times as to
obtain accurate results.
Steps 1-5 was Repeated with the remaining brands of vinegar
Analysis

RESUlTS
Table showing volume of Ethanoic Acid Brand A used in the titrations.
ROUGH 1 2 3

Final burette reading/ cm3 27.50 26.90 28.80 27.40

Initial burette reading/cm3 0.00 0.00 1.30 0.00

Volume of dilute vinegar 27.50 26.90 27.50 27.0

used/ cm3

Table showing volume of Ethanoic Acid Brand B used in the titration

ROUGH 1 2

Final burette reading/ cm3 26.50 21.10 21.00

Initial burette reading/cm3 6.50 0.00 0.00

Volume of dilute vinegar 27.50 21.00 21.00

used/ cm3

Table showing volume of Ethanoic Acid of brand C used in the titrations

ROUGH 1 2

Final burette reading/ cm3 26.60 21.10 21.00

Initial burette reading/cm3 6.50 0.00 0.00

Volume of dilute vinegar 20.00 21.10 21.00

used/ cm3

Table showing Prices of Ethanoic Acid of different brands used in the titration
brand of vinegar Brand A Brand B Brand C

Prices 9.99 6.40 6.90

CALCULTIONS:

BRAND A
Stiochiometrical equation : CH3COOH (aq)+ NaOH (aq)→ CH3COOH (aq) +H2O (l)
Calculate number of moles of NaOH in the Conical flask.
Volume x Concentration = 25 cm3 x 0.1 moldm-3 = 0.002125 moles
1000 1000

Average titre = (27.50 + 27.50)/2 = 27.50

The concentration of dilutes vinegar (250cm)
Since 0.002125 moles of NaOH (aq) reacts with 0.002125 moles CH3COOH (aq) as observed
in the equation
= 0.002125/27.50
1cm = 0.0000773mol
250cm = 250cm x 0.0000773
= 0.0193 moles
1000cm = 0.0193 x 4
= .0772 moldm3
Therefore the the concentration in gdm-3 of ethanoic acid in the commercial brand of vinegar
Equals :
The mass of one mole of ethanoic acid x the number of moles found present
The mass of one mole of ethanoic acid = 60.052g

ethanoic acid in the commercial brand of vinegar (gcm-3 x 100).

Thus 0.0772 x 60.052 g = 4.64 g

(4.64 g / 60.052 g) x (100/1) = 7.72 %
BRAND B

Stiochiometrical equation : CH3COOH (aq)+ NaOH (aq)→ CH3COOH (aq) +H2O (l)

Calculate number of moles of NaOH in the Conical flask.

Volume x Concentration = 25 cm3 x 0.85 moldm-3 = 0.002125 moles
1000 1000

Average titre = (21.00 + 21.1)/2 = 21.05

The concentration of dilutes vinegar (250cm)
Since 0.002125 moles of NaOH (aq) reacts with 0.002125 moles CH3COOH (aq) as
observed from the equation
= 0.0025 / 21.05

1cm = 0.0001010 mol

250cm = 250cm x 0.000101
= 0.0252moles
1000cm = 0.0253 x 4
= .1012moldm3
Therefore the the concentration in gdm-3 of ethanoic acid in the commercial brand of vinegar
Equals :
The mass of one mole of ethanoic acid x the number of moles found present
The mass of one mole of ethanoic acid = 60.052g

ethanoic acid in the commercial brand of vinegar (gcm-3 x 100).

Thus 0.1012 x 60.052 g = 6.077 g

(6.077g / 60.052 g) x (100/1) = 10.12 %
BRAND C

Stiochiometrical equation : CH3COOH (aq)+ NaOH (aq)→ CH3COOH (aq) +H2O (l)
Calculate number of moles of NaOH in the Conical flask.
Volume x Concentration = 25 cm3 x 0.85moldm-3 = 0.02125moles
1000 1000

Average titre = (21.00+21.00)/2 = 21

The concentration of dilutes vinegar (250cm)
Since 0.002125 moles of NaOH (aq) reacts with 0.002125 moles CH3COOH (aq) As observed
from the equation
= 0.002125/21.00
1cm = .0001012mol
250cm = 250cm x 0.0001012
= 0.0253 moles
conc. solution of vinegar equals
1000cm= 0.0253 x 4
= .1012moldm3

Therefore the the concentration in gdm-3 of ethanoic acid in the commercial brand of vinegar
Equals :
The mass of one mole of ethanoic acid x the number of moles found present
The mass of one mole of ethanoic acid = 60.052g

ethanoic acid in the commercial brand of vinegar (gcm-3 x 100).

Thus 0.1012 x 60.052 g = 6.077 g

(6.077g / 60.052 g) x (100/1) = 10.12 %
Treatment of results

Therefore the Hypothesis is disproven since the concentration of ethanoic acid in all of the
commercial brands of vinegar are not the same as determined through the titration experiment.
But however It was calculated that Both brand B and C Had the concentration of enthanoic acid
present.As Seen From The Table and copared to it titration value it Can Be said That Brand B Is
the most cost effective choice.

Limitations

 Determinig The Point of chemical equivalence, this is where the end point observed does
not nescessarily mean it is equal to the equivalence point

 If too much of phenolphthalein idicator is added it could affect the results obtained since
it is acidic.

 The Accuracy of the Measuring Instruments used

Sources of error

 All reading were not take at eye level thus resulted in an error due to parallax

 All bubbles at the noose of the burette an pipette may have not been revomed

 Human error-Determining the end point

 Funnel may not have been removed when taking reading

Reflection

This experiment showed that not all labels give a correct indication of its contents However it
can be considered that there was a few sources of error that hindered the experimentation
affecting those results. It was shown before the experiment that all brands contained the same
concentration of ethanoic acid. While carrying out this experimentation, it was clearly
emphasized that taking readings at eye level was very important because the slightest of variation
could cause a major differences in results. This experimentation could have been improved if
better measuring equipment was used, such as the pipettes which had broken tips at the end and
also if sufficient quantities of the titrant and analyte was used.

Conclusion

The concentration of ethanoic acid present for all different brands of vinegar was found, where
Brand A was found to contain 7.07% ethanoic acid, Brand B was found to be 10.12% and
Brand C was to contain 10.12% ethanoic acid, The same as Brand B but however The hypothesis
was still rejected given that not all the concentration ethanoic acid found present were the same.