"Baking powder contains sodium hydrogencarbonate, NaHCO3.
Describe a procedure that does NOT involve a titration, by which you can determine the % by mass of sodium hydrogencarbonate in baking powder.
Your procedure must make use of the reaction of NaHCO3 with sulphuric acid".
I'm the only guy in the class retaking this, so I'm having to come up with this all by myself.
The idea I had was to neutralise a certain volume of H2SO4(aq) with the NaHCO3(s) - I'd know when this happens because it'd stop giving off CO2 (carbonate + acid = salt + water + CO2) and from the balanced equation I'd be able to work out the mass needed, and therefore %age composition, pretty easily.
But... There's acid in the baking soda... That's how it works, you get it wet, the NaHCO3 reacts with the acid, you get a neutral salt and CO2 that rises the dough. It doesn't say what this acid is. That's what I'm worried about... Is my method OK, or would the acid in the baking soda interfere with the reaction I described above? This has to be in by Friday :s