Numerical answer
A sample is a mixture of urea, (molar mass ), and glucose. In a Kjeldahl determination all the nitrogen is converted to , which is passed into of . The excess acid requires of for neutralisation. Taking , the mass percentage of urea in the sample is ______. (Give the answer correct to two decimal places.)
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Answer: 56.47
The acid taken is milliequivalents of because sulfuric acid is dibasic. The back-titration consumes milliequivalents of base, so the excess acid is meq. The ammonia absorbed neutralised meq of acid, so . This equals the nitrogen content: . Glucose contains no nitrogen, so all of it comes from urea, which is nitrogen by mass. Hence . The percentage is . The key points are that the dibasic acid counts two equivalents per mole, that only the ammonia-consuming portion of the acid is relevant after back titration, and that the nitrogen-to-urea conversion factor is used because urea carries two nitrogen atoms per molecule.
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