The purpose of this experiment was to determine the %NH¬3 in the cobalt compound. This experiment included two solutions: the first solution includes boric acid (H3BO3) and water; the second solution included the cobalt compound, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and water. The sodium hydroxide helps separate the eater ligands attached to the cobalt ion. Once the hydrogen ion are separated the two molecules become neutral and precipitated is formed. Boiling the NH3 to H3BO3 will trap the NH3 and this will produce NH4+ + H2BO3-. H2BO3- (boric acid ion) can be titrated using 0.3 M of HCl. This whole process is called distillation where a solution is purified by the process of heating and cooling (see pg. 26-28 for details). The average percent ammonia
