Titration methodology
       
 

Titrations are a general class of analytical methods

The concept of a titration may have originated with acid-base chemistry, but we can think of any systematic process of addition of an analyte to dermine concentration of an unknown as a titration. The classic titration consists of the addition of strong base/acid to a weak acid/base. One uses an indicator dye to measure the equivalence point. That is the point at which all of the acid/base has been converted into its conjugate base/acid. The two videos describe two aspects of the methodology of acid-base titrations. First we describe the general concept of the titration and how it is implemented using a burette to add the strong base/acid in an accurately determine volume.

PDF Version of Implementation of Titration

The titration curve is specific to acid-base chemistry. It is a plot of the pH as a function of the added titrant (strong base or acid). The titratoin curve for a typical acid has a region that we can call the buffer region where the change in the pH is relatively small as titrant is added. Then the pH shoots up to the pH of the conjugate base as the concentration of added titrant (strong baseP approaches the concnetration of the weak acid. These points are illustrated in the video, which explains how to calculate the pH at each segement of the titrtaion curve.

PDF Version of The Interpretation of Titration Curves