Titration of Acetic Acid Using Red Cabbage Juice Indicator
Purpose/Introduction: In this lab, I used red cabbage juice as a natural pH indicator to figure out how strong my
vinegar was. Red cabbage changes color depending on how acidic or basic something is, so I used it to see when vinegar
got neutralized by baking soda. This helped me figure out how much acid was in the vinegar.
Hypothesis: If a base is gradually added to an acid using a natural pH indicator like red cabbage juice, then a visible
color change will occur when neutralization is reached.
Procedure: First, I chopped up red cabbage and boiled it for about 30 minutes until the water turned dark purple. I
strained out the pieces and kept the liquid as my pH indicator. Then, I used a dropper to count how many drops it took
to fill a teaspoon — I wrote that number down. I made the vinegar solution by mixing 2 teaspoons of vinegar with a
tablespoon of the cabbage juice in a glass. For the base, I mixed 4¾ teaspoons of baking soda into 1¼ cups of water. I
used the dropper to slowly add the baking soda solution to the vinegar mix while swirling it after every few drops. Once
the color stayed light purple, I stopped and recorded the number of drops. I did this three times to get an average.
Data:
Trial # # of drops of NaHCO₃ Volume of NaHCO₃ (mL) Volume of CH₃COOH (mL)
1 96 4.7328 9.86
2 102 5.0286 9.86
3 99 4.8807 9.86
Average 99 4.8807 9.86
Quantitive Data-
Volume of vinegar per trial: 9.86 mL
Average number of drops of NaHCO₃ added: 99
1 tsp = 4.93 mL
Qualititve Data-
initial color of solution was like reddish-pink
Color change when i was at the endpoint was light purple
Calculations:
[Link]: volume per drop = total mL ÷ number of drops
4.93 mL ÷ 97 drops = 0.0508 mL/drop
Trial1. Formula: volume = drops × volume per drop
96 × 0.0508 = 4.877 mL
Trial2. 102 × 0.0508 = 5.182 mL
Trial 3. 99 × 0.0508 = 5.030 mL
Average Volume. Formula: average = (trial1 + trial2 + trial3) ÷ 3
(4.877 + 5.182 + 5.030) ÷ 3 = 5.030 mL
Convert liters. Formula: liters = mL ÷ 1000
5.030 ÷ 1000 = 0.00503 L
Moles of NaHCO3. Formula: mol = M × L
1.14 × 0.00503 = 0.00574 mol
Moles of CH3COOH Formula: 1:1 ratio, so moles = same as NaHCO₃
= 0.00574 mol
Convert vinegar volume to liters
9.86 ÷ 1000 = 0.00986 L
Molarity of vinegar
Formula: M = mol ÷ L
0.00574 ÷ 0.00986 = 0.582 M
Mass of CH₃COOH:
Formula: mass = mol × molar mass
0.00574 × 60.05 = 0.344 g
Moles HCl = 0.0264 × 0.25 = 0.0066 mol
Ca(OH)2 needs 2 moles HCl per mole - 0.0066 / 2 = 0.0033 mol
M = 0.0033 / 0.030 =0.110M
Graph/Results: No graph required for this lab
Conclusion: When I did this experiment, I figured out that the vinegar’s molarity was about 0.582 M, which means
there was like 0.344 grams of acetic acid in the part I tested. My hypothesis turned out to be right since the color went
from reddish-pink to a light purple when it got neutral. I did the test three times and got 96, 102, and 99 drops, so the
results were pretty consistent you could say. The cabbage juice actually worked well as a natural pH indicator to
measure how much acetic acid was in the vinegar. Overall, this lab showed that everyday stuff at my house can be used
to test vinegar strength with titration.
Questions:
[Link] the balanced equation for the reaction between acetic acid and sodium bicarbonate. CH₃COOH + NaHCO₃ →
CH₃COONa + H₂O + CO₂
2. What type of reaction occurs between acetic acid and sodium bicabonate? Acid-base neutralization and gas forming
3. Calculate the number of moles of NaHCO3 that were required to neutralize the CH3COOH in the vinegar. 0.00556 mol
4. Calculate the molarity of the vinegar sample. (Don’t forget to convert mL to L) 0.564 M
5. Calculate the number of grams of CH3COOH in the vinegar. 0.334 g
6. Is it possible for the equivalence point of a titration to not be at a pH of 7? Explain your answer. Yes. It depends on the
strength of the acid and base. Weak acids and strong bases can give pH above or below 7.
7. What is the Molarity of a Ca(OH)2 solution if 30.0mL of the solution is neutralized by 26.4mL of 0.25M HCl solution?
0.110 M