In Exp #1, you will prepare 250.0 mL of the standard solution.

This is achieved by
first mixing an accurately-weighed amount of sodium oxalate powder with a small
amount of sulfuric acid and de-ionized water in a beaker. This mixture is transferred
to a 250 mL volumetric flask and de-ionized water is then added to fill the flask to the
calibration line. The sodium oxalate dissolves in the acidic media to produce aqueous
oxalic acid (H2C2O4).

A 25.00 mL sample of the oxalic acid standard solution is then placed in an

Erlenmeyer flask. The unknown solution (KMnO4) is added from a buret until the
end-point has been reached.

The oxalic acid reacts with the potassium permanganate in a redox reaction:

2MnO4- + 6H+ + 5H2C2O4 2Mn2+ + 8H2O + 10CO2

You can see from the redox reaction that 5 moles of oxalic acid are oxidized by 2
moles of permanganate, yielding the following relationship:

# moles oxalic acid 5

=
# moles permanganate 2

For various reasons, you should ideally use about 25 mL of KMnO4 in the titration.
Note that the approximate concentration of the KMnO4 solution is already known to
be about 0.01 M. In the following section, we will see how to answer the question:

What should be the concentration of the oxalic acid for 25.00 mL of it to react
completely with 25 mL of 0.01 M KMnO4 solution?

1. Concentration of the Sodium Oxalate Standard Solution:

As we know that, ideally, 25 mL of 0.01 M KMnO4 should be used in one titration,

we can calculate the approximate number of moles of KMnO4 to use in the titration as:

(0.025 L KMnO4)(0.01 M KMnO4) = 0.00025 moles KMnO4

We will now work backwards from this number to determine the required
concentration of the sodium oxalate standard solution.

First, recall that every titration requires that equal molar amounts of unknown and
standard solutions be reacted together. If the reaction between oxalic acid and KMnO4
occurred in a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio, then we would know that 0.00025 moles of
oxalic acid must be used in one titration. However, as seen above, this redox reaction
is not a 1:1 reaction, but rather a 5:2 reaction. Accordingly, we must use 5 moles of
oxalic acid for every 2 moles of permanganate:

5 mol oxalic acid

(0.00025 moles KMnO4) x = 0.000625 moles oxalic acid
2 mol KMnO4
Keeping in mind that molarity (M) is defined as:

# moles of solute
Molarity, M =
volume of solution (in litres)

and that we wish to use 25.00 mL of standard solution per titration, the desired
molarity of the standard solution is:

0.000625 moles oxalic acid

= 0.02500 M, or 2.500 x 10-2 M oxalic acid
0.02500L oxalic acid

Now do a simple check to see if this answer makes sense. We know that the
approximate concentration of the KMnO4 is 0.01 M. We also know that, ideally,
identical volumes of standard and unknown solutions will be used (25 mL).
Accordingly, if the stoichiometric ratio of the two reactants was 1:1, then we would
need 0.01 M oxalic acid. However, recall that the ratio is 5 to 2, which is the same as
saying (5/2) or 2.5. It is thus a simple matter of multiplying the KMnO4
concentration by a factor of 2.5 to yield the desired oxalic acid concentration:

(0.01 M permanganate)(factor of 2.5) = 0.025 M oxalic acid.

If you wish to treat these calculations in a systematic manner, then proceed as

follows. However, you should be able to apply the above reasoning to any chemical
titration and not need to rely on a systematic approach.

(1) Oxalic acid solute: # moles oxalic acid = Mo x Vo

where Mo = molarity of oxalic acid and Vo = its volume
(2) Permanganate
# moles permanganate = Mp x Vp
solute:
where Mp = molarity of permanganate and Vp = its
volume
# moles oxalic acid 5
(3) =
# moles permanganate 2
Mo x Vo 5
Substituting (1) and (2) into (3) we obtain: =
Mp * Vp 2
5 Mp * Vp
We can rearrange this equation to calculate the
Mo = x
required molarity of oxalic acid:
2 Vo
0.01M x 25.00
Since we had set Vo = Vp = 25.00 mL, and Mp 5
mL
~= 0.01M:
Mo x
 =
2 25.00 mL
5
The concentration of the standard oxalate Mo 0.01M =
x
solution should therefore be: = 0.025M
2

2. Preparation of the Sodium Oxalate Standard Solution:

We have seen that a 0.025 M solution of oxalic acid needs to be prepared from solid
sodium oxalate powder. What mass of powder needs to be weighed out to prepare
250.00 mL of this solution?

(0.025 M oxalic acid)(0.25000 L oxalic acid) = 0.00625 moles oxalic acid

Keeping in mind that moles (n) can be defined as:

mass of compound
moles (n) =
molecular mass of compound

and that the molecular mass of sodium oxalate (Na2C2O4) is 134.000 g mol-1, we can
rearrange the above equation to:

mass of compound = (moles)(molecular mass of compound)

mass of sodium oxalate = (0.00625 moles Na2C2O4)(134.000 g mol -1 Na2C2O4)

mass of sodium oxalate = 0.8375 g

Does this make sense? Will dissolving 0.8375 g of sodium oxalate in 250 mL of
acidified water yield 0.025 M oxalic acid? It should......

0.8375g sodium oxalate

= 0.025 M oxalic acid.
(134 g/mol sodium oxalate)(0.2500 L water)