Titration & Its Applications
History
Titration can be traced all the way back to the origins of volumetric analysis, which began in the late eighteenth century. French scientist, Francois Antoine Henri Descroizilles, developed the first burette in 1791. His research reached neighboring countries and soon enough the first book containing titration (Lehrbuch der chemisch-analytischen Titrirmethode (Instructional Book of Titration Methods in Analytical) was published in Germany. The author of this book, Karl Freiderich Mohr, is also responsible for advancing the burette from a graduated cylinder- type instrument to a tool with a clamp at the bottom that is still used today.
Titration
A common laboratory method of used to determine the unknown concentration of an unknown acid or base. Since volume measurements play a key role in titration, titration is also known as volumetric analysis. in this process carefully measured amounts of the reagent are added to a solution of unknown concentration until a change in color or electrical measurement occurs. Once a reaction of known proportion takes place, it can be measured and used to calculate the unknown concentration.
Application of Titration
Titration is used in many industries for various purposes. For example in the food industry titration can be used to define oils, fats and similar substances while in biology labs, it can be used to determine the proper concentration of chemicals to anesthetize test animals. Or titration can be employed in laboratory medicine, to determine unknown concentrations of chemicals in blood and urine. Pharmacists also use titration in the development of new pharmaceuticals. Of course, the main use of titration is in the laboratory; However, it is not limited to the field of chemistry. Scientists of different disciplines use titration for a variety of different reasons.