Simon Farbman, Justin Chin, September 8-9

Using Titrations to Find Unknown Values

The purpose of the lab was to find the percentage of the Cl- ion in an unknown substance

based titrations and solution stoichiometry. The laboratory had many correlations to what was

learned in class. For instance, the lab depended heavily upon precipitation reactions and

solubility rules, both of which were discussed in class the day before. Another concept appearing

in both class and the laboratory was the use of solution stoichiometry, which was essential for

manipulating the data found in the lab. The lab procedure consisted of gradually adding AgNO3

from a buret into the unknown chloride solution to create the solid precipitate AgCl. Six drops of

K2CrO4 were added to the unknown chloride solution to indicate when the reaction of AgNO3

and the chloride solution was complete; only then would the AgNO3 react with the K2CrO4 to

produce a buff color. Once the solution turned buff, the AgNO3s volume difference from the

start to end of the titration was measured, and by utilizing a series of stoichiometric calculations,

the percentage of Cl- in the unknown chloride sample was found. This procedure was repeated

three times with the three percentages averaged in order to produce the most accurate results.

The quantitative result of the laboratory was that the unknown chloride solution was composed

of 46% of the Cl- ion. A conclusion that can be drawn from that is that the substance must

contain a 1:1 ratio of the unknown cation and Cl-, which means that the unknown cation must

have a charge of 1+. Another conclusion is that by using solution stoichiometry, it is possible to

find the percent composition of an unknown substance from limited information. However, there

were many possible sources of systematic error in the experiment, including not rinsing the buret

with AgNO3, measuring the wrong amounts of substances, and allowing too many drops to pass

through the buret into the chloride solution past the point where the solution became buff. All of

these could potentially lead to incorrect results.