Experiment-3

Aim of the Experiment

Conductometric Titration:
To determine the equivalence point of HCl with N/10 NaOH

Theory:
Conductometric titration is a type of titration in which the
electrolytic conductivity of the reaction mixture is continuously
monitored as one reactant is added. The equivalence point is
the point at which the conductivity undergoes a sudden
change. Marked increases or decrease in conductance are
associated with the changing concentrations of the two most
highly conducting ionsthe hydrogen and hydroxyl ions.
As the titration progresses, the protons are neutralized to form
water by the addition of NaOH. For each amount of NaOH
added equivalent amount of hydrogen ions is removed.
Effectively, the mobile H+ cation is replaced by the less-mobile
Na+ ion, and the conductivity of the titrated solution as well as
the measured conductance of the cell fall. This continues until
the equivalence point is reached, at which one obtains a
solution of sodium chloride, NaCl. If more base is added, an
increase in conductivity or conductance is observed, since more
ions Na+ and OH- are being added and the neutralization
reaction no longer removes an appreciable amount of H+.
Consequently, in the titration of a strong acid with a strong
base, the conductance has a minimum at the equivalence
point. The conductometric titration curve is a plot of the
measured conductance or conductivity values as a function of
the volume of the NaOH solution added. The titration curve can
be used to graphically determine the equivalence point.
The equation for the reaction in this experiment is:
NaOH (aq) + HCl (aq) NaCl (l) + H2O (l)

The net ionic equation is:

Na+ (aq) + OH- (aq) + 2 H+ (aq) + Cl- (aq) NaCl (l) +
H2O (l)

Procedure:1. The conductivity meter is calibrated.

2. 25 ml of given HCl is pipetted out in a clean beaker and then
it is make up to 100 ml by adding 50 ml distilled water.
3. Now, the conductivity cell is immersed in the beaker and and
the initial conductance of the solution is taken by stirring the
solution and keeping it constant.
4. Then, 2 ml portions of NaOH is added from the burette and
stirred well. The conductance of the solution for each addition is
to be noted.
5. The conductance of the solution decreases till the
equivalence point of strong acid is observed.
6. After the equivalence point, on continuing the addition of
NaOH there will be a small raise in conductance values till the
end point of the acid is reached.
7. After that, the conductivity values increases suddenly due to
the conductance of OH ions.
8. A graph is plotted with respect to the volume of NaOH
consumed versus corrected conductance. From the intersection
point on the graph we obtain the equivalence point of the acidbase combination.
9. From known solution, we can calculate the strength of HCl.

Observations:Strength of NaOHN/10
Volume of HCl=25ml
Volume of NaOH added(ml)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
38
40

30
25
22
19
17
14
13
12
10
9
9
8
8
7
6
5
5
4
4
3
3
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
9

Conductance (S)

42
44
46
48
50

Calculations:
At equivalence point,
V1S1 = V2S2
=> S1 = V2S2/V1
where,
V1= Volume of HCl =25 ml

9
10
12
13
15

V2=Volume of NaOH at equivalence point

S2= Strength of NaOH = 0.1 N
S1=Strength of HCl

Results:
1. Strength of NaOH solution = 0.1 N
2. Strength of acid HCl = 0.11 N

Precautions:
1. Care is taken to ensure that the electrodes do not touch the
glass-walls as it might lead to erroneous results.
2. Care is taken to avoid any parallax error whilst recording the
readings from the conductance meter.