Potentiometric titrations in methanol/water medium: Intertitration variability

Abstract

Homogeneous sets of data from strong acid-strong base potentiometric titrations in a mixed solvent medium (9:1 v/v methanol/water), performed by means of the glass electrode, at various constant ionic strengths and with different reference electrodes, have been analysed by statistical criteria. A standardized procedure has been established to obtain reliable potentiometric data in mixed solvents. It has been demonstrated how, with the aid of a proper linearized model, analysis of variance (ANOVA) applied to the standardization titrations can be used to test the reliability of a potentiometric chain in a medium other than pure water. The error expected in the stability constants thus evaluated is related to the intertitration error of the operational p K* ′ w, for the same medium and the same chain. The results obtained by applying ANOVA to the mixed solvent data substantially confirm the trend found for aqueous media, the intertitration error being larger than the intratitration error for all the parameters investigated ( E ′ 0, p K* ′ w, mean equivalence volume). The stochastic error thus obtained depends on the ionic medium used and on the kind of reference electrode employed in the electrochemical chain.