Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My 7th grade daughter is doing a project on which orange juice has the most vitamin c by way of titration. she wants to know if she can use Equate: Providine-Iodine solution 10%? Instead for the Lugol's iodine solution.

Hi Teresa,

A povidone-iodine solution might work in titrating to determine the amount of vitamin C in orange juice, since it does release small amounts of free iodine, which is necessary for the titration. However, it won't be as effective as Lugol's iodine in titrating, so you might have to use large amounts. This could throw off the color of the solution, and make it difficult to determine the end of the titration.

Also, these solutions have small amounts of sodium hydroxide, which will react with the vitamin C in orange juice. This could also throw off your results.

I would recommend asking your daughter's science teacher or another chemistry teacher at her school if they have Lugol's iodine solution, since they might have it for use in chemistry labs. If not, you could also try asking local high school chemistry teachers.

Hope this helped,
Allison

Thank you so much Allison.

Glad I could help!