Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Formic acid

DrNewbee - 26-7-2015 at 03:15

Hi

Made formic acid from oxalic acid and glycerol. Now i need 88% formic acid...and i have no idea of what concentration i have.

Iv searched the web for a formula to calculate this but to no avail. There must be a way of weighing and calculation it by weight..anyway chemistry is new to me so bare with me...

Sulaiman - 26-7-2015 at 04:20

Formic acid is monoprotic according to this wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid#Monoprotic_acids
so you could titrate it as such.

or I guess that you could decompose it to H2O and CO in excess conc. H2SO4 and since CO is not very soluble in water you could measure the CO volume?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formic_acid

unionised - 26-7-2015 at 05:31

That would work, but CO is horribly toxic especially for someone who says" chemistry is new to me".
This might be a better bet.
http://us.mt.com/us/en/home/supportive_content/application_e...


An alternative would be titration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titration

DrNewbee - 26-7-2015 at 07:38

Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
That would work, but CO is horribly toxic especially for someone who says" chemistry is new to me".
This might be a better bet.
http://us.mt.com/us/en/home/supportive_content/application_e...


An alternative would be titration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titration


Thank you guys...i must agree id rather stay away from toxic fumes...thx

kecskesajt - 26-7-2015 at 22:36

And if you really need CC.,React it with PbO and then react it with H2S.You will get nearly anhydrous.