You being here, and reading this article simply shows that you feel nostalgic about going back to your analytical chemistry lessons, to once again read through all different chemical elements, atomic structures, lab experiments, revising what is titration, back or redox titration and stuff like that! Well, before I begin with the definition, let me brief you, in short, on the definition of titration.

Titration is a process which calculates the property of one solution (molarity) to generalize another unknown property of a solution.

Now with this take, we’ll look at the definition of back titration below.

What is Back Titration

Back titration is basically, an analytical technique in chemistry, which is performed backwards in the method. That is, a user needs to find the concentration of a reactant of a given unknown concentration by reacting it with an excess volume of another reactant of a known concentration. Once these mixtures react with each other, there will be a resulting mixture, which is titrated back in the process. The molarity of the excess, which was added in the process is taken under consideration too. This method of titration is very useful as:

The endpoint of a reverse titration is simpler to identify (than the endpoint of a normal titration)
You can try to compute the amount of acid/base in a non-soluble solid

There’s also another definition (of the same) that you can learn, i.e., back titration is a technique that is used in the analysis of solids, which are insoluble or partially soluble in water. It’s also used, when:

The sample consists of certain impurities which are bound to interfere with a regular forward titration
If the reaction between the titrant and the analyst is extremely slow

After learning all these lessons, let’s consider some examples for you to experiment with. Read the rest of this entry »

So it’s practical time and the laboratory seems to have assumed a personality of its own, an ominous one at that, as the chemistry sessions seem to be getting hotter than ever in tandem with the climate out there, eh? Well, well, I don’t really have the authority to say ‘no worry, no sweat; let not studies get you upset!’ – I wish I were your college principal but then where’s the guarantee that I won’t turn into an academic sadist (a thousand apologies if any of you readers happen to hold the venerable position but you see, if trashing your good name is what it takes to get the attention of young scholars these days, so be it!) as well?! However, in such a case, the least I can (and will) do is to share some useful information that I picked up during my own college days with all you future scientists out there! So, here’s a brief and easy tutorial on extraction of trimyristin from nutmeg for a starter.

Isolation of Trimyristin from Nutmeg

Before we proceed towards the isolation procedure, let me give you a brief overview of what trimyristin is. It is a chemical derivative of myristic acid, a triglyceride to be specific. Myristic acid, in turn, is a saturated fatty acid and is found in abundance in nutmegs. In fact, the term myristic acid comes from Myristica fragrans which is the scientific name for the most common commercially available species of nutmeg. In fact, the genus to which nutmeg species belong is simply known as Myristica! Coming back to trimyristin (before this chemistry tutorial gets any more diverted and turns into a full-fledged botany lecture!), this ester (Oh! Did I miss telling you that? Sorry!) is the chief constituent of nutmeg butter, accounting for as much as 75% of its total composition.

Apart from nutmeg, trimyristin is also found in a lot of vegetable oils that have a high saturated fat content. Trimyristin does not dissolve in water, a characteristics it shares with various other fatty acids and oily compounds However, it dissolves quite easily in chloroform, ethanol, benzene, ether and dicloromethane. Now, as far as extraction of trimyristin from nutmeg is concerned, it is done using ground or powdered nutmeg and ether. Heat is applied to isolate the trimyristin from the nutmeg solids and it gets dissolved in the ether. Following are the details of how to go about it:- Read the rest of this entry »