ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

EXPERIMENT 3:
NEUTRALISATION CAPACITY OF COMMERCIAL ANTACID TABLET

ABSTRACT
This experiment is to determine the neutralisation capacity of commercial antacid
tablet. Firstly, dissolve the tablet in an excess amount of acid of known concentration. Some
of the HCl will be neutralized by the carbonate, but there will be some remaining. Continue
with a titration with NaOH solution from experiment 2 to figure out the amount of excess
acid. Then, from this, calculate how much acid reacted with the antacid. This method of
analysis is called a back-titration. The reactions above are reversible, which means that CO2
dissolved in water will produce some carbonic acid. This acid will react with the NaOH
solution and the titrating and give us inaccurate results. Therefore it is important to boil the
solution when the carbonate reacts with acid, to remove CO2 as a gas.

OBJECTIVE
1. To prepare Hydrochloric Acid Solution.
2. To standardise the Acid against Sodium Hydroxide.
3. To determine Neutralisation Capacity of a Commercial Antacid Tablet.

INTRODUCTION
This experiment is about neutralisation capacity of commercial antacid tablet. Firstly,
preparing an approximate concentration of hydrochloric acid solution and standardise against
standard sodium hydroxide solution from experiment 2. Hydrochloric acid is also not a
primary standard because its concentrated solution vaporises rapidly at room temperature.
Once the accurate molarity of the hydrochloric acid solution is known, t is referred as
standard solution.

The neutralising capacity of the tablet is the amount of hydrochloric acid that it can
neutralise. The antacid tablet does not dissolve in water alone but requires the presence of
HCl. Since the HCl is excess, only some of the added HCl will react with the base present in
the tablet. The remaining amount of HCl is then analysed with the standard NaOH solution
from experiment 2. The difference in the amount of HCl added initially in excess and the
remaining HCl gives the amount of HCl that reacts with the antacid and thus the
neutralisation capacity of the antacid tablet. The calculated amount of HCl that reacts gives
the mass and percentage of hydroxide in the tablet.

PROCEDURE
This experiment starts with preparation of the HCl solution. Firstly, volume of 6.0 M
HCl is calculated as 21.00mL. Then, poured 80% of distilled water into 500mL conical flask.
Using graduated cylinder, the volume of 6.0 M HCl is been measured and transferred to the
conical flask. 250mL of distilled water is added to the mark of the conical flask. Covered the
conical flask with parafilm and mix the solution well. The solution is labelled.
Next step is to standardisation of the the acid against sodium hydroxide. First, 50mL
of burette is rinsed and filled with NaOH solution from previous experiment. The initial
reading is recorded. Pipette and transferred 10.0 mL of prepared HCl into a clean conical
flask. Then, 20mL of distilled water is added followed by 3 drops of phenolphthalein
indicator to the flask and titrate to the end-point with standard NaOH solution. The final
reading is recorded. The titration is been repeated two times.
Last procedure is determination of neutralisation capacity of an antacid tablet. Starts
with refilled the burette with NaOH solution and the initial reading is recorded. Next, antacid

tablet is weighed without touching by hands. The mass is recorded and the tablet is crushed
using mortar and pestle. Split the crush tablet into two or three samples and reweighed each
of samples to the nearest milligram. The mass of each crushed samples is recorded and
transferred to a clean 250mL conical flask. Measured 25mL of distilled water and poured to
the flask. Dispense using a volumetric pipette, 25.0 ml of standard acid into the flask
containing the crush tablet. The content is heated using hot plate until boil gently for 5
minutes. Check the litmus paper only contains the remaining acid solution. The solution is
cooled down to room temperature and then carefully placed the flask to beaker of tap water.
Then, 5 drops of phenolphthalein indicator is added to the solution. The indicator changes
colour from colourless to red and titrated again using standard base. The experiments is
repeated with the two other samples.

QUESTIONS
1. Acid is always added to water, and never the reverse. Why?
A large amount of heat is released when strong acids are mixed with
water by adding more acid releases more heat. If add water to acid, it
will form an extremely concentrated solution of acid initially. The
solution that forms is very dilute and the small amount of heat released
is not enough to vaporize and spatter it.
2. Write a balanced chemical equation for the reaction of the antacid tablet with HCl if
the antacid contains hydroxide ion.
HCl(aq)remaining + NaOH(aq) = NaCl(aq) + H2O(l)
3. Write a balanced chemical equation for the reaction if the antacid contains carbonate
ion.

CO3 2-(aq) + H2O(l ) HCO3 -(aq) + OH-(aq)

DISCUSSION
This experiment is about neutralisation capacity of commercial antacid tablet. Firstly
is to do a preparation of the hydrochloric acid solution. The volume of 6.0 M HCl is
calculated as 21.00mL. The volume is taken from preparation of 250mL of 0.5M HCl. Then,
the volume is mixed with water to the conical flask.
Next is to standardise the acid against sodium hydroxide. This step needs to use
NaOH solution from previous experiment. The volume of the acid used is 10.0mL. As for
NaOH solution, the initial reading is 0.00 and for the final reading is 24.20 for the first time
titration. As for second time, the final reading is also 24.20 and the last titration is 24.30
which for all volume of the acid used and initial readings are the same.
For the last step is determination of neutralisation capacity of an antacid tablet. This
last step is used antacid tablet. First weighed one antacid tablet without touching by hands
and the mass recorded is 0.6040g. Crushed the tablet by using mortar and pestle and then
divided the crushed tablet into two samples. The samples is reweighed resulted sample 1 is
0.300g while sample 2 is 0.2655g. The samples is transferred into a flask.Then, distilled
water is added into a flask followed by 25mL of HCl. The solution is been titrated with
NaOH solution. The initial reading of NaOH solution for both samples solution is 0.00mL.
Final reading for the first sample is 60.20mL while the second sample is 60.00mL.

CONCLUSION

The molarity of HCl solution against sodium hydroxide is 21.00mL. For the first samples,
resulting 60.20mL of NaOH solution need to be titrated to the HCl solution. For the second
samples, resulting 60.00mL of NaOH solution need to be titrated to the HCl solution.

REFERENCE

Nelson, J., Chemistry: The Central Science, 3rd edition, Prentice-Hall,

1985