Define General procedure of titration - Nutritional Biochemistry?
In general a titration requires that we add precise amounts of the known titrant to the unknown analyte or titrand. The usual setup is to use a burette, as illustrated in the margin figure. The titrant is placed in the burette and the volume noted on the graduations. This is the initial burette reading. A measured amount of the analyte is placed in a flask set below the tip of the burette as shown in the margin picture. The titrant is added slowly to the analyte by opening the stopcock and letting it flow into the flask.
By controlling the stopcock one can add titrant at any rate including drop by drop. The flask is swirled during addition to mix the components. When the endpoint is detected the titration is stopped. One must take care to slow down the addition of titrant as one approaches the endpoint to avoid overshooting it. At the endpoint the volume of titrant left in the burette is read. This is the final burette reading. The difference between the burette readings is the volume of titrant added to analyte. Since the titrant and analyte are present in stoichiometric amounts one can calculate the quantity of analyte from the titrant by a stoichiometric conversion which will be explained in every practical. The information we have read so far is very basic to our understanding of volumetric analysis. It is very important that you understand this concept clearly, primarily so because you shall be conducting the volumetric analysis in many of the experiments included in this manual. To help you consolidate your knowledge on this topic, we have included some review questions herewith. Answer these questions and recapitulate what you have learnt about the qualitative and quantitative technique.