Unique # 51070
The main purpose of the experiment involves two oxidation-reduction reactions to calculate the oxidizing capacity of a sample of unknown bleach. In order to determine the volume of Na2S2O3 added, students will conduct a titration of bleach with thiosulfate with addition of a starch indicator to find the end point of the titration. Moreover, the oxidizing capacity of bleach is calculated with the percentage by mass of NaOCl in the unknown bleach sample. The overall chemical reaction throughout the experiment will be balanced with the two oxidation-reduction reactions. Within the household chlorine bleaches, sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and calcium hypochlorite Ca(ClO)2 are the oxidizing agents. Before titration, the mass of the bleach is weighed out for each trial and recorded, approximately 0.4-0.6 grams. After the bleach sample is weighed, bleach is poured into a beaker with several aliquots of distilled water to completely wash the bleach out. Next, 3 M KI is added to the beaker, then 3 M H2SO4 is poured into the bleach with 5 drops of …show more content…
When a strong acid is present, hypochlorite ion changes to hypochlorous acid when the strong acid donates the H+ when it dissociates in the solution. In order to calculate the oxidizing capacity, the mass of NaOCl present in each trial should be determined using the volume of Na2S2O3 added in each trial multiply by the concentration to find the number of moles of Na2S2O3. Next, use the number of moles of Na2S2O3 mutiply by the mole ratio of NaOCl to Na2S2O3, which is 1 to 2, and then multiply by the molecular weight of NaOCl (74.55g/mol). Then use the mass of NaOCl and divide it by the mass of the bleach to calculate the percentage of the NaOCl in the unknown bleach sample. The average of the percentages from the three trials would be the oxidizing capacity, which was 0.7089% +- 0.1497 (calculated standard