Indicator Lab Report
Indicator Lab Report
Purpose
To describe tests that can be used to distinguish an acid from
a base, classify various solutions as acidic or basic, given their
pH and make a household indicator using red apples.
Materials
3 red apples
1 Bunsen burner
2-250 mL beaker
1 wire gauze
2 kitchen knives
6 watch glasses
1 filter paper and funnel to remove the pulp from each extract
pipette
Procedure
1. Peal the apple skins using a knife.
2. Place the apple skin on a scale. (You need 60g of apple skin)
3. Add 100 mL of water into a beaker.
Safety Concerns
1. All students should wear goggles during the entire lab.
2. Care should be exercised before letting students use knives to
cut up vegetables. Only high school students should be
permitted to use knives, and even then only if they are mature
enough to handle them. If you are not sure, DO NOT USE
KNIVES!
3. The boiling extracts tend to splash somewhat. Make sure all
possible safety precautions involving the use of Bunsen
burners and boiling liquids are used.
4. The small quantities of HCL and NaOH used in the lab are still
enough to cause injury, especially to the eyes.
Hypothesis
We predict that if we use red apple as an indicator for acids
and bases and add it to NaOH and HCl, indicator in NaOH will
turn yellow and indicator in HCl will turn pink.
Observations
When indicator was added:
Roblems or mistakes:
Results
When the red apple indicator was added to NaOH, it turned
greenish yellow. Adding the red apple indicator turned HCl to
pink.
While carrying out the experiment, we faced a few problems.
The Bunsen burner didnt work. After a few trials, we began
using hot plate instead. Using hot plate may be the reason the
apple skin solution didnt boil and give off color as fast as we
thought it would. It took 30 minutes for the apple skin to give
its color instead of 5 minutes like we expected. After the red
apple indicator was made, we had a hard time dropping the
indicator drops. A pipette would have been useful in this step.
Instead, we poured little amounts of the indicator in the watch
glasses.
Analysis
The skin of red apple has anthocyanin in it. This substance
gives the color of the red apple indicator solution. When the
apple skin was boiled, the substance passed on to the water,
and gave it a pinkish, yellowish orange color. Anthocyanin
changed color when the indicator solution was added to NaOH
and HCl. Not having an indicator concentrated enough with
anthocyanin (the red apple indicator would not be colored)
could have been a problem. Then, it would be hard to observe
the color change. To solve the problem, we could have made
an indicator using less water and more apple skin. Also, using
redder apple instead of yellowish red apples could be another
solution since redder apples have more anthocyanin. If the
Bunsen burner doesnt work, hot plate or even a stove can be
used. To make sure the results are absolutely accurate, the pH
Bibliography