144 Essentials of pharmaceutical chemistry

Indicator pH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Cresol Red Red Orange Yellow Pink Red
Metacresol Purple Red Orange Yellow Grey Violet
Tropaeolin OO Red Orange Yellow
Thymol Blue Red Orange Yellow Grey Violet-blue
Mentanil Yellow Red Orange Yellow
Pale
Naphthol Yellow Colourless Yellow
Yellow
Bromophenol Blue Yellow Grey Blue-violet

Methyl Orange Red Orange Yellow

Methyl Orange-Xylene
Cyanol FF Violet Grey Green
Dimethyl Yellow Red Orange Yellow
Congo Red Blue Violet Red
Bromocresol Green Yellow Green Blue
Methyl Red Red Orange Yellow
Litmus Red Violet Blue

Bromocresol Purple Yellow Grey Blue-violet

Bromothymol Blue Yellow Green Blue

Orange-
Neutral Red Red red
Orange
Phenol Red Yellow Pink Red

1- Naphtholphthalein Pale red Green Blue

Phenolphthalein Colourless Pink Red

Pale
Thymolphthalein Colourless blue
Blue
Alizarin Yellow GG Colourless Pale yellow Yellow
Yellow Yellow Orange
Tropaeolin O -orange
Titan yellow Yellow Orange Red

Figure 6.3 A table of the pH ranges of indicators.

Back and blank titrations

In the example above, a reaction was chosen that was quick to carry out
and was quantitative, i.e. it went to completion. In many pharmaceutical
analyses this is not the case and a back titration has to be carried out.
Back titrations are often combined with blank titrations, particularly
if there is some loss of reagent during the assay (e.g. as a result of splashing
or vigorous boiling) or the concentration of a volumetric reagent changes
during the assay. A back titration involves addition of a known excess of
reagent to the sample (this drives the reaction to completion) and titration
of the unreacted excess of reagent with a suitable titrant. The volume that