[DD_]

Ok, so i have done a back titration to find the ammount of asprin in a tablet and it's all gone smooth, but now a question has come up that i seem to go blank on.

http://courses.cm.utexas.edu/pmccord/fall2004/ch455/aspirin.pdf is a rought outline of an almost identical experiment and the question i need help on is discussion 3.

it states:
Ethanol was used in the solutions to help dissolve the aceytlsalicylic acid. Ethanol is slightly acidic and will react with the NaOH. Describe a blank experiment that you would do in order to calculate the ammount of NaOH that reacted with the ethanol in your solution, and how would you use these results in the data analysis

ANY help at all is appreciated (words written down by me ATM = 0) so anything is a great help to me

thanks

-DD

[Borek]

What is a blank titration?

Ethanol will not react with NaOH as far as I remember, so whole discussion is a moot.

[tamim83]

Ethanol (pKa=16) is only slightly less acidic than water (pKa=15.5).  So the equilibrium would favor ethanol.  Perhaps use a more concentrated NaOH solution to push the equilibrium toward the water side

[Borek]

Ethanol (pKa=16) is only slightly less acidic than water (pKa=15.5).  So the equilibrium would favor ethanol.  Perhaps use a more concentrated NaOH solution to push the equilibrium toward the water side

That's not what DD_ aims at