During the course of my tutoring duties, I often find myself assisting students with chemistry projects. One such project involves acidic solutions. The experiement requires phenolpthalein and sodium hydroxide.
Since the last time I took a chemistry course was nearly 15 years ago, I had hoped that one of the Teeming Millions could point me in the right direction.
Essentially, are there any chemistry students or teachers here who know where I could purchase these items (I live in a rural part of the SW U.S.), and if there are any online resources that would better help me to prepare this experiment for my students?
Assuming you’re tutoring at the high school level, and under the auspices of a high school or somesuch, the chem teacher at the local high school should be able to order this.
try googling “phenolphthalein indicator solution”, I turned up a few supply houses.
Some even sell kits that contain phenolphthalein indicator solution as well as a dilute solution of NaOH to be used in basic (no pun intended) titration experiments.
Ex-lax tablets used to be phenolphthalein – my HS chem lab had a box of them, and dropping one in NaOH resulted in a pink color, as expected. Unfortunately, such ‘stimulant laxatives’ are now considered unsafe and the formula has been changed. You may still be able to get phenolphthalein-based laxative tablets at a pharmacy if you explain that you want to use it for an acid-base titration experiment.