In: Chemistry
What is meant by a back titration
A normal titration involves the direct reaction of two solutions. With the known concentration, volume of one reactant, and the volume determined by titration of the other reactant, we can work out the unknown concentration of the other reactant.
A back titration on the other hand, involves two separate reactions.
I will make use of three chemicals to give an example of a back titration: HCl, NaOH and Na2CO3.
Assuming I have a sample of Na2CO3 which is the substance of interest, I will react it with known amount of HCl which is in excess.
After this reaction, I will then do a titration with NaOH to determine the amount of HCl which is left unreacted. With the known initial amount of HCl and the determined amount of HCl unreacted, we can then work out how much HCl reacted with Na2CO3. With that we can then work out how much Na2CO3 was present in that sample.