How can you determine the strength of sulfuric acid?

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Answer 1 · 2014-07-09T00:59:52

The easiest way is to titrate a sample with a solution of a base.

You can read how to do titration calculations in

EXAMPLE

It takes 33.48 mL of 0.1610 mol/L NaOH to neutralize 25.00 mL of a sulfuric acid solution. What is the concentration of the sulfuric acid?

Solution

The balanced equation for the reaction is:

2NaOH + H₂SO₄ → Na₂SO₄ + 2H₂O

Moles of NaOH = 0.033 48 L × #(0.1610"mol")/(1"L")# = 5.390 28 × 10⁻³ mol

Moles of H₂SO₄ = 5.390 28 × 10⁻³ mol NaOH × #(1"mol H₂SO₄")/(2"mol NaOH")# = 2.695 14 × 10⁻³ mol H₂SO₄

Molarity of H₂SO₄ = #(2.695 14 × 10⁻³"mol")/(0.025 00"L")# = 0.1078 mol/L