Science News

Titration Competition

Last week, students in Year 12 Chemistry participated in the Annual Titration Competition, run by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. This is a state-wide competition with high scoring students invited to attend the national competition. 

Titration is an analytical technique used by chemists to determine the concentration of an unknown acid/base or oxidising agent/reducing agent in a sample. It requires a high level of precision and attention to detail. In this technique, students react a known quantity of an acid with unknown concentration, with a known quantity of a base with a known 

concentration. Thus, through calculation, the concentration of the unknown solution can be determined. Some common applications of titration are:

Determining the: 

• concentration of alcohol in a beverage
• amount of sulfur dioxide preservative used in food
• concentration of acid in vinegar
• percentage purity of an acid or base sample

I was highly impressed with how carefully students completed the experiments and I look forward to hearing of the results in October.

Rhys Leslie

Learning Leader