A Refined Redox Titration Simulation Program for the Simple System

Abstract

Commonly used methods to simulate the oxidation–reduction (redox) titration curves include the three-step method and the rigorous method. The simple three-step method simulates the redox titration curve with the assumption that the reaction is complete, which is widely used in undergraduate quantitative analysis courses. For the rigorous simulation method, the concentrations of the components are obtained throughout the titration by solving the equilibrium equation, and then the potential is obtained based on the Nernst equation. However, both methods have certain defects. In this work, a user-friendly program that uses an optimized rigorous algorithm to simulate the redox titration curve of a simple system with n1 = n2 = 1 at different potentials was built with LabVIEW. The program was then applied to the teaching of redox titration, and questionnaires from 15 students were used for evaluation. The results showed that the program improved students’ understanding of the principles of redox titration and deepened their graphical impression of Nernst equations.