An acid-base titration is a quantitative chemical analysis method for estimating the concentration of an acid or base. It has several advantages and some disadvantages, let’s check them.
Titration is a quantitative laboratories technique used for the determination of analyte concentration. In which the titrant is added from a burette until the reaction is over, and an indicator is commonly used to signal the reaction's endpoint or equivalence point. Acid-base, redox, precipitation, and complexometric titration are types of titrations that are used for different types of solutes.
An acid-base titration is a method to estimate the unknown concentration of acid or base of sample solution by neutralizing it with a known concentration of acid or base. The three theories use for titration are the Arrhenius concept of acid and base, Bronsted-Lowry concept, and Lewis concept. Based on the type of reaction involved acid-base titration is classified into four types strong acid-strong base, weak acid-strong base, strong acid-weak base, and weak acid-weak base. Some examples of indicators used in titrations are phenolphthalein, methyl red, methyl orange, methyl yellow, malachite green, phenol red, and thymol blue indicator, etc.
Advantages of acid-base titration:
- The major advantage of acid-base titration is that it does not require special or expensive chemicals. It just requires regular chemicals such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH), potassium hydroxide (KOH), hydrochloric acid (HCl), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), acetic acid (CH3COOH), formic acid (CH2O2), ammonia and methylamine, etc.
- It does not require sophisticated instruments; it just needs a burette with its stand conical flask, beaker, pipette, funnel, wash bottle, and spatula.
- The methods of acid-base titrations are generally robust.
- It is a cost-effective method compared to other methods.
- Does not require high expertise, has a simple operating procedure.
- The analysis can be automated, and the results can be very accurate and precise.
- It does not take much time, the result is available rapidly.
- Different types of titrations are available for different types of samples (analytes).
Disadvantages of acid-base titration:
- The major disadvantage of acid-base titration is that the acids and bases are defined only as aqueous solutions and not as substances.
- The theory cannot explain basic compounds that do not contain the hydroxide ion.
- Different types of titrations can only be employed within a specific pH range, not for the entire pH range.
- It is a destructive process that frequently consumes large amounts of the chemicals being analyzed.
- The major disadvantage of titration is that it requires reaction to take place in a liquid phase; it is not suitable for solids or solutes which have solubility issues.
- Similar to other titration methods, this also results in a large amount of chemical waste that must be disposed of.
- It has limited accuracy and precise repeatability depends on the user since determining the same endpoint may be difficult.
- Since this is an open system, temperature, moisture (humidity) and some environmental factors can affect the results.
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