I have an upcoming practical investigation.
I will be testing the amount of iron in dried thyme via titration. When isolating the iron from the spinach which acid is best to use? I have access to concentrated nitric acid but only 2mol/L hydrochloric acid or 2mol/L sulfuric acid. Will the use of a certain acid effect the results?

Question

I have an upcoming practical investigation.
I will be testing the amount of iron in dried thyme via titration. When isolating the iron from the spinach which acid is best to use? I have access to concentrated nitric acid but only 2mol/L hydrochloric acid or 2mol/L sulfuric acid. Will the use of a certain acid effect the results?

anonymous · Answer

i'm not sure - though i do know that  2 mol/ L hydrochloric acid is a good solvent for iron.
what method will you be using for the titration?

anonymous · Answer

I will just be doing a straight forward titration, I also realized hydrochloric acid would not be a suitable choice as it will cause chlorine gas to be evolved as a side reaction.
So far my plan is to gently boil the dried thyme in the acid, confirm presence of iron with KSCN, then add zinc powder to the remaining solution to ensure all iron is in a +2 oxidation state, then simply titrate the solution with standardized potassium permanganate.