Have you ever tried to measure the weight of the solid particles suspended in water? Some of you may have done this or something similar to this during your chemistry practicals in school days. Well this process of weighing the substance present in other substance is known as gravimetric analysis in scientific terms. Given below is a scientific definition of gravimetric analysis.

Gravimetric Analysis Definition

Gravimetric analysis is a set of methods used in analytical chemistry for the quantitative determination of an analyte based on the mass of the solid. An analyte is a substance or a chemical element which is determined in an analytical procedure. Analyte is referred as substance that cannot be measured but measurable property of the analyte can be measured. For example, a bed can be considered as an analyte where we cannot really measure the bed but the height, weight, and width, etc.,of the bed can be measured. In short, gravimetric analysis allows one to determine the mass of a pure compound to which the analyte is related. For example, it is quite challenging to measure glucose in the blood but one can measure the glucose concentration in blood by using gravimetric factor. The process of gravimetric analysis involves, isolating the ions in the substance using precipitation reaction, then filtering and washing the precipitate to remove the impurities, and then converting a precipitation into a measurable compound and then finally weighing it to determine its mass by difference. Now, you have a better idea of what is gravimetric analysis. Now let’s see the step wise procedures involved in gravimetric analysis.

Procedure for Gravimetric Analysis

Given below is the standard procedure for determining the mass of a substance using gravimetric method.

At first you need to weigh the sample or substance that need to be analyzed.
If the substance is not in the soluble state, then dissolve it in the suitable solvent.
Now you need to start with precipitating the analyte, for which you have to add an excessive precipitating reagent.
Once you add the precipitate, filter the whole mixture to isolate the precipitate from the solution.
There are chances of impurities in the precipitate, so wash the precipitate thoroughly to remove the same.
Now you have to dry the precipitate. The general method for drying the precipitate is by heating it. The heating process removes the water from the precipitate completely. Read the rest of this entry »