Project Day

27-3-2009
4B

To determine the percentage

of calcium carbonate (CaCO3)
in eggshells
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 What is the DDT
• DDT is a synthetic chemical compound
once used destroying certain living
things that are harmful to plants and
animals.

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• DDT effect on wild
bird life is the
weakening or
thinning of the
eggshell. The
consequence is the
breaking of the
eggshell before
hatching
• Eggshell mainly
consists of calcium
carbonate.
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 Materials and Apparatus Used

0.1015 M Ethanol
NaOH solution

0.1987 M HCl
solution

Phenolphthalein
4
Mortar and pestle Beakers

Electronic balance
Volumetric flasks5
 Pipette

Filter paper

Burette 6
Funnel
 procedures
1. The egg was boiled and allowed to cool down.

2. The eggshell was taken off and the attached

membrane was removed.

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3. The eggshell was dried in an oven a
110 ℃ for overnight.
4. The eggshell was removed from the oven
and allowed to cool down.

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5. The eggshell was ground into a fine powder
with mortar and pestle.

6. About 0.2 g of powder was weighed accurately

and put into a 250-cm3 conical flask.
7. 25.00 cm3 of 0.1987 M HCl solution was
pipetted into the flask and 5 cm3 of ethanol
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was added.
8. The solution was boiled for 15 minutes and
allowed to cool down.

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9. A few drops of indicator solution (phenolphthalein)
were added and the solution was then titrated with
NaOH solution until a pink colour appeared.

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10. The volume used was recorded.

11. The titration was repeated twice.

The volume used was recorded.

12. The above procedure was repeated for

brown eggshell, white eggshell and
quail eggshell.

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 Observations:

1. When the eggshell powder was

dissolved in HCl solution, some bubbles
came out during stirring and the solution
turned into slightly milky.

2. Even after heating, the sample

powder was not dissolved
completely.
Some white precipitate remained in
the solution.
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3. The solution turned pink at the end-point.

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 Reaction involved

CaCO3(s) + 2 H+(aq) → Ca2+(aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g)

OH-(aq) + H+(aq) → H2O(l)

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 Data, Calculation and Results:

Brown Eggshell ：
Volume of 0.1987M HCl solution used: 25.00 cm3
Trial 1 2 3
Weight of eggshell powder (g) 0.20 0.19 0.20

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 Trial 1 2 3
Burette final reading (cm3) 17.82 26.60 30.30
Burette initial reading (cm3) 5.80 13.70 18.43
Volume of NaOH solution used (cm3) 12.02 12.90 11.87

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 For trial 1 ：
Number of moles of CaCO3 in sample

25.00 × 0.1987 − 12.02 × 0.1015 1

= ×
1000 2

= 0.001874 mol

Weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample

0.001874 × 100
= ×100% = 93.69%
0.20
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Similarly, for trial 2:
weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample = 96.27%

Similarly, for trial 3:

weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample = 94.07%

Average % weight of CaCO3 in sample = 94.68%

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White eggshell ：

Volume of 0.1987M HCl solution used: 25.00 cm3

Trial 1 2 3
Weight of eggshell powder (g) 0.20 0.16 0.20

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 Volume of NaOH solution used for titration
with sample:

Trial 1 2 3

Burette final reading (cm3) 29.18 41.92 36.70

Burette initial reading (cm3) 18.35 24.00 25.12

Volume of NaOH solution used (cm3) 10.83 17.92 11.58

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 For trial 1 ：
Number of moles of CaCO3 in sample

25.00 × 0.1987 − 10.83 × 0.1015 1

= 1000
× 2

= 0.001934 mol
Weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample
0.001934 × 100
= 0.20
×100%

= 96.70% 22
Similarly, for trial 2:
weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample = 98.39%

Similarly, for trial 3:

weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample = 94.80%

Average % weight of CaCO3 in sample = 96.63%

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Quail eggshell ：
Volume of 0.1987M HCl solution used: 25.00 cm3

Trial 1 2 3
Weight of eggshell powder (g) 0.18 0.20 0.17

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Volume of NaOH solution used for titration with
sample:
Trial 1 2 3
Burette final reading (cm3) 18.35 14.45 22.90
Burette initial reading (cm3) 0.80 1.30 3.90
Volume of NaOH solution used (cm3) 17.55 13.15 19.00

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 For trial 1 ：
Number of moles of CaCO3 in sample

25.00 × 0.1987 − 17.55 × 0.1015 1

= 1000 ×
2

= 0.001593 mol
Weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample
0.001593 × 100
= ×100%
0.18

= 88.50% 26
Similarly, for trial 2:
weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample = 90.82%

Similarly, for trial 3:

weight percentage of CaCO3 in sample = 89.38%

Average % weight of CaCO3 in sample = 89.57%

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Conclusion:
In the present experiment, simple acid-base titration with the
technique of back-titration was employed to determine the amount
of calcium carbonate in eggshell.

For brown eggshell, the value was found to be in the range of

~93 - 96% in the three trials and the average value was 94.68%.

For white eggshell, the value was found to be in the range of

~95 - 98% in the three trials and the average value was 96.63%.

For quail eggshell, the value was found to be in the range of

~88 - 91% in the three trials and the average value was 89.57%.

The weight percentage of calcium carbonate for the smaller quail

egg was smaller than the normal sized brown and white eggs.
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