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Date Submitted: October 12, 2012

Acid-Base Titrations in MATLAB
ChE 26 Design Project Write-up

Submitted by: Gines, Kimberly A. 2011-47993
Quintero, Ramon Paolo T. 2011-11368
Repoquit, Dominique Ann, N. 2011-02461

Submitted to: Mr. Bemboy Nino F. Subosa


INTRODUCTION
Titration, or titrimetry, is an important method used in quantitative chemical analysis that is used to
determine the unknown concentration of an identified solution. In a titration, one of the solutions to be
neutralized (called the analyte), say the acid, is placed in a flask together with a few drops of a pH indicator.
The other solution of known concentration (called the titrant) is placed in a buret. Then the titrant is added
to the analyte drop wise, until the equivalence point is reached, defined by the change in color of the pH
indicator. In order to ensure the success of a titration procedure, the indicator to be used must change in
color during the equivalence point; otherwise, the false results will be obtained. A plot of pH vs. titrant
volume is called a titration curve, and is used to visually see the behaviour of the analyte.
Our main objective was to create a program executable in MATLAB that will give a list of possible
indicators that may be used in titration whose conditions are specified by the user, and will generate a
titration curve for the said process.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Upon opening the program in MATLAB, a menu like the one showed in Figure 1 will appear, which
allows the user to choose the type of analyte he/she will use.

Figure 1. Initial Menu
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When the user selects the Strong Monoprotic Acid and Strong Monoprotic Base buttons, the
program will prompt the user for the concentration of the analyte and the titrant, as well as the volume of
the analyte. As soon as the user accomplishes all of these, the program will tell at which pH the
equivalence point will occur, will give the list of appropriate pH indicators, and will give the titration curve for
the process, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Sample Titration Curves for Strong Acid-Strong Base Titration
The process is the same for Weak Acid/Weak Base titrations, the only difference is that a new
parameter is introduced, the dissociation constant (K). When the user selects the Weak Monoprotic Acid
or Weak Monoprotic Base buttons, a new menu appears, where one can either select a default analyte
with given K
a
/K
b
, or a custom analyte, where he/she can specify the dissociation constant. As before, the
program will display the list of possible indicators and display the titration curves.
The same rulings go for polyprotic acids. The only difference is that they have more than one K
a

values corresponding to each of their acidic H atoms. The user can use an analyte with assigned K
a
values
or a custom analyte. The outputs will be the equivalence points, the corresponding lists of possible
indicators and the titration curves, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Sample Titration Curves for Polyprotic Acid-Strong Base Titration
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A sample output of the program is given below.

DESIGN METHODOLOGY
The program is designed such that all of the things we have learned in ChE 26 this semester would
be applied. Many parts of the program were written using for and while loops. If-loops were used for each
of the menus in the program and on the list of possible indicators. pH indicators work for a specific pH
range, thus, the importance of using if-loops.
While-loops were used in the restriction of certain events, which include the termination of the
program with the X icon on the upper right hand of the menus, and the input required when using the
custom feature. The acid dissociation constant should be a nonnegative number less than 1. Because of
that, the program will not accept any input that is less than 0 or greater than 1. Aside from restriction, it is
also responsible for the continuity of the program, in such a way that, the initial menu (Figure 1) will show
after the output, as the one given above, has been obtained. Hence, the only way to close the program is
through the Exit button in the initial menu.
The equations used in obtaining the pH for every volume of the titrant are enumerated below:
pE = -log |E
+
] (1)
pE = -log |E
-
] (2)
pE +pE = (3)
pE = pK
u
+ o
|con]ugutc]
|ucd]
(4)
pE =
pK
c1
+pK
c2

2
(5)
K
u
=
|H
+
]|A
-
]
|HA]
(6)

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Aside from using the equations above, the ICE (Initial, Change, Equilibrium) Table was used. By
assigning a variable to the unknown acid concentration, a function with respect to the acid concentration
was obtained, using Equation (6). The Modified Secant Method was used in obtaining the root of the said
function, evaluating it using Equation (1). An initial value of 1 x 10
-4
M, a tolerance of 1 x 10
-10
and a
perturbation factor of 1 x10
-6
were used.
The pH values were computed by dividing the entire titrant volume into regions: the pre-
equivalence region, the equivalence point, and the post-equivalence region. The pH values obtained for
each region were vectorized, forming a single vector for pH. The equivalence points were computed using
Equation (5).
The entire program is looped such that the user may still create titration curves after obtaining an
output.
TROUBLESHOOTING and PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED
Initially, the program will prompt the user for the dissociation constants. However, most especially
for polyprotic acids, erroneous input of K values will result to a distorted titration curve. In order to solve
this, default analytes were included in the program, which includes the most common acids/bases. The
custom feature, was still not removed. Also, the titration curve plot remains even after a user starts to
create a new one. In order to solve this, the Help function was used, and it was discovered that a close
function can be used to close the figure before using the program again.
DIVISION OF TASKS
Dominique Repoquit
- Diprotic Acids
- Debugging
- Comments
- Research
Kimberly Gines
- Strong Monoprotic Acids/Bases
- Weak Monoprotic Acids/Bases
- Debugging
- Initial Interface
Ramon Paolo Quintero
- Triprotic Acids
- Debugging
- Compilation of the Program
- Research
- Project Write-Up