6

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1

Conclusion
This experiment was conducted for determined the Ka value for weak

acid and identify the unknown acid from the Ka value that obtained from the
calculated data. For the first trial the pH value is 5.5 and the second trial is
5.3. The Ka value for the first trial and second trial are 1.371 x 10 -6 and 1.410
x 10-6. This experiment was identifying by using potentiometric titration.
Based on the Ka value it showed that the acid of the first titration is
potassium hydrogen phthalate. The methods will the value of every Ka of
unknown acid. Therefore, the higher the value of Ka the stronger the acid is.

6.2

Recommendations
1. Rinse the burette with distillation water several times before adds the
sodium hydroxide solution into it to make sure there is no
contaminant.
2. Take the reading of sodium hydroxide used to neutralize acid twice to
overcome the parallax error.
3. Repeated the experiment with other type of unknown acid to
determine the value of Ka.
4. Conduct the experiment several times to get the average value to get
precious result.

ABSTRACT

There are two types of acid which is weak acid and strong acid. The strength of an
acid is depending on the ability to donate protons to base. The acid ionization
constant, Ka is used to measure the strength of an acid. The Ka value is a
characteristic of an acid that used to determine the unknown acid. Therefore, the
experiment is to determine the Ka value for weak acid using a potentiometric
titration method and to identify the unknown weak acid solution form the calculated
Ka values obtained during experiment. The experiment are conducted by add some
of 0.1 M of sodium hydroxide solution into a burette. Then, 10ml of unknown acid
are added with 90ml of distilled water to cover the pH electrode. Then, titrated the
unknown acid until neutralize. The pH values are taken every 1 ml of sodium
hydroxide solution that been added to unknown acid. When the pH value rise rapidly,
the sodium hydroxide solution are in a small portion until the pH value become
constant. Then the experiment is repeated for the second trial. For the first trial of
titration the Ka value is 1.371 x 10-6. For the second trial of the titration the Ka value
is1.410 x 10-6. The molarity of first trial and second trial are 5.3089 x 10-4 and
7.0795 x 10 -4. Therefore, the higher the value of Ka for the unknown acid, the
stronger the acid be.

Compound
Acetic acid

Formula
HC2H3O2

Molar mass
60.0

pKa
4.5

Propanoic acid

HC3H5O2

74.1

4.9

Crotonic acid

HC4H5O2

86.1

4.7

Sodium hydrogen tartrate

NaHC4H4O6H2O

190.1

4.3

Potassium hydrogen

KHC8O8

204.2

5.5

phthalate