Titration of oxalic acid with cerium IV sulphate at room temperature using ferroïn as internal indicator

Abstract

Evidence is presented to show that, contrary to the statements of earlier workers, the reaction between ceric sulphate and oxalic acid is quite rapid in hydrochloric acid medium specially in the presence of iodine monochloride as catalyst. We have now found that the need for a temperature of 50° in the cerimetric titration of oxalic acid using ferroïn as indicator is not due to the sluggishness of the reaction between oxalic acid and Ce IV (as believed by Willard and Young) but because of the slow reaction between oxidised ferroïn and oxalic acid in the presence of sulphate ion derived from eerie sulphate. Conditions have now been developed for the titration of oxalic acid with eerie sulphate at room temperature in l N hydrochloric acid medium using ferroïn as indicator, and barium ion as scavenger for sulphate ion, which latter markedly retards the reaction between oxalic acid and oxidised ferroïn, as well as that between oxalic acid and Ce IV. The method now developed has several advantages over that prescribed by Willard and Young because it avoids the high temperature of 50°, where the ferroïn indicator is found to undergo some dissociation. It also avoids the use of the iodine monochloride catalyst.