Aim

I will be carrying out an investigation to determine whether higher temperatures produce more reduction o in the concentration of vitamin c in juice. My control will be room temperature (20 C).

Background
Scientific name for vitamin c is L-ascorbic acid. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin which is needed for growth and repair of tissues, to form essential proteins to make skin, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels, heal wounds and repair and maintain cartilage, bones and teeth. Vitamin C is a building block of collagen, which is the structural material for bone, skin, blood vessels and other tissues. If you fail to intake vitamin C you may have a risk of having inflammation of the gums, scaly skin, nosebleeds, painful joints, anemia, decreased wound healing rate, dry and splitting hair, easy bruising, gingivitis, possible weight gains because of having a slow metabolism, weakened tooth enamel and other problems associated with scurvy. Free radicals are things within your body that are made due to the breakdown of food within your body or the exposure to tobacco smoke or radiation. Free radicals may induce cancer, heart disease and conditions like arthritis. Anti-oxidants are nutrients that block some of the damage caused by the free radicals, and vitamin C is an anti-oxidant, which is one of the reasons why it is essential that we get a daily intake of it. The problem with vitamin C is that the body does not have the ability of making vitamin C on its own, while also having difficulties in storing vitamin C within the body. This is why it is very important for us to consume a decent amount of vitamin C every day. Vitamin C is found in fresh fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, cantaloupes, mangoes, papayas and their juices. It is also found in Vegetables such as bean sprouts, green peppers, plantains, broccoli and greens such as kale and poke greens are also good sources of vitamin C. Fruits with the highest source of vitamin C include cantaloupe, citrus fruit and juices, kiwifruit, mango, papaya, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries and watermelons. The reason the body cannot store vitamin C is because vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin. This means that any excess of it is excreted through the urine. You need a right amount of vitamin C in your body, too much (more than 2000mg/day) can lead to an upset stomach and diarrhea, a severe form of not enough vitamin C is called scurvy. Because vitamin C is a fragile molecule, when it is heated, the heat snaps the carbon bonding and then forms into smaller molecule chains, so when fruits and vegetables are heated, this causes the vitamin C to leach out of food and go into the water to be oxidized, first to dehydroascorbic acid and then to diketogulonic acid. Diketogulonic has no vitamin C and is irreversible. The hotter the temperature and the longer you heat vitamin C for, the more the oxidation. Freezing vitamin C can also have an effect on vitamin C products, if the product that contains vitamin C is frozen and then exposed to air, it negatively affects the tissues of the product.

Equipment and solutions needed

Burette and a stand 100ml volumetric flask 25ml pipette 10mL and 100mL measuring cylinders 250mL conical flask Bunsen burner or water bath (for the heating up experiments) Potassium Iodate solution (0.002mol L-1) Starch Indicator solution (0.5%) Potassium iodide solution (0.6%) Dilute hydrochloric acid (1mol L-1)

Procedure
We will be using fruit juice for this experiment. For fruit juice, fresh or packed, you need to strain it through a cheesecloth in order to remove any seeds and pulp within the juice which will allow the juice to freely run through the pipettes. Potassium Iodate(0.002mol L-1) Dry potassium Iodate overnight at 100C. Allow it to cool for a few hours and then precisely weigh 0.43g of the dried potassium iodate and dissolve it in 1L of distilled water in a volumetric flask. Potassium Iodide solution (0.6mol L-1) Dissolve 10g of KI in solid form in a 100mL volumetric flask with 50mL of distilled water and dilute the 100mL with distilled water. 1. Ensure safety by wearing safety glasses, having long hair tied up and wearing appropriate footwear. 2. Pour 10mL of juice into a 100mL test tube. 3. Add 60mL of distilled water into the test tube with the fresh or packed juice in it to make it a 1:6 Juice, distilled water ratio. 4. Use a pipette to take out 25mL of the sample solution of the test tube and pour it into a conical flask. -1 5. Add 5mL of 0.06mol L potassium iodide into the conical flask. -1 6. Add 5mL of 1mol L hydrochloric acid to the conical flask. 7. Add 150mL of distilled water into the conical flask 8. Add 1mL of starch indicator into the conical flask 9. Fill a burette with an amount of potassium iodate that will be suitable in starting your titration, record down where you filled it to. 10. Begin to titrate the potassium iodate into the conical flask and swirl the conical flask at the same time. When it reaches a navy blue colour, record down where the potassium iodate has reached on the burette. 11. Record your data, and perform this experiment 2 more times making sure your colour in the conical flask is the same navy blue for all of the experiments and the delivered volume is at maximum of 0.4mL of each other. 12. Repeat the experiment but instead, heat the sample solution of the fresh or packed juice and distilled water (1:6) to different temperatures such as 30C using a water bath or Bunsen burner. Whatever device you use to heat your experiment, make sure you use the same one throughout the rest of the heatings.

Hazards
Potassium iodate and iodide Be careful not to inhale, ingest, make skin contact with or make direct eye contact without safety glasses. In case of skin contact, wash yourself with soap and water. Cold water may be used. Cover the irritated skin with emollient. If this irritation develops, get medical attention. In case of inhalation, remove the person to a fresh air environment and if they arent breathing, give them artificial respiration. In case of eye contact, remove any contact lenses. Immediately flush eyes with heaps of water for a minimum of 15 minutes with cold water. Get medical attention if the irritation occurs. Short term effects if these are not followed include skin burns due to prolonged exposure and over exposure by inhalation may cause respitory irritation. Due to repeated exposure, long term effects such as organs damage, carcinogenic effects, mutagenic effects, teratogenic effects and developmental toxicity may occur. In case of ingestion, do not induce vomiting unless medical personnel directs you to do so, never give anything by mouth to an unconscious person, if the person ingests large amounts, call a physician immediately and loosen tight clothing such as collars and ties.

Calculation
These results of ascorbic acid concentration were all calculated following these steps; 1. Finding the average volume of KIO3 from concordant titres and recorded in Litres 2. Calculating the moles of IO3 used 3. We use the reaction equation and the ratio equation to work out the number of moles of I2 4. Using a balanced equation to find the moles of ascorbic acid. 5. Finding the concentration in moles of ascorbic acid I will use the room temperature experiment (20 C) as an example. Firstly, we find the average volume of KIO3 in litres which is used from concordant titres. For the room temperature experiment the average was 10.78mL 10.87mL in litres is 0.01078L Secondly, we calculate the moles of IO3 that is used up in the reaction by using the formula n=cV where the n refers to the number of moles, the c refers to the molar concentration in litres and the V refers to -1 the volume in litres. The molar concentration in litres was 0.002molL throughout all the experiments. For the room temperature experiment, the average volume in litres was 0.01078L. Number of moles of I03(n) = cV -1 Number of moles of I03(n) = 0.002molL x 0.01078L -5 Number of moles of I03(n) = 2.516x10 Thirdly, we use the balanced equation that we have to find the moles of iodine reacting. The balanced + equation is 2IO3 + 10I + 12 H 6I2 + 6H2O. We find the ratio of I03 :I2 using this balanced equation which comes out to be 1:3 as 2 moles of I03 makes 6 moles of I2. Because of this ratio we multiply the number of moles of IO3 by 3 to find the number of moles of I2. n(I03 ) = 3 (I2) -5 n(I03 ) = 2.156x10 x 3 -5 n(I2) = 6.468x10 mol Fourthly, we work out the number of moles of ascorbic acid. We use the equation ascorbic acid + I2 2I + dehydroascorbic acid to work it out. The ratio in moles for ascorbic acid:I2 is 1:1 and this is because 1 mole of ascorbic acid reacts with 1 mole of iodide to form 2 moles of iodine and 1 mole of dehdydroascorbic acid. n(I2) = n(ascorbic acid) - ratio of 1:1 -5 -5 n(I2) = 6.468x10 mol : n(ascorbic acid) = 6.468x10 mol Lastly, we find the concentration in molL of ascorbic acid using the c=n/V equation where c refers to -1 -5 concentration in molL of ascorbic acid, the n refers to the number of moles of (I2) which is 6.468x10 mol and the V refers to the volume of ascorbic acid in litres which is 0.025L. c=n/V -5 c=6.468x10 mol/ 0.025L -3 -1 c= 2.5872x10 molL This means that the concentration of ascorbic acid for room temperature (20 C) is 2.5872x10 molL .
o -3 -1 -1 o

Results

For this graph the Y axis is the concentration of ascorbic acid while the X axis is the temperature. This graph starts at 2 on the X axis and 2=room temperature (20oC), 3=30oC, 4=40oC and so on.
Temperature o Room temperature (20 C) o 30 C o 40 C o 50 C o 60 C o 70 C o 80 C Concentration of ascorbic acid (mol L ) -1 0.0025872 mol L -1 0.007224 mol L -1 0.005832 mol L -1 0.007176 mol L -1 0.005904 mol L -1 0.005616 mol L -1 0.005616 mol L
-1

At room temperature, the concentration was 0.0025872mol L-1, but as the temperature increased, the o concentration of ascorbic acid increased or decreased, as at 30 c the concentration got to 0.007224mol 0 0 L-1 but then fell at 40 C to 0.005832mol L-1 but then increased again to 0.007176mol L-1 at 50 C before o falling again to 0.005904mol L-1 at 60 C, and then having a slight decrease and then a level off with both o o 70 C and 80 C being 0.005616mol L-1. These results, along with the table and graph indicate there was no trend between the temperature and the concentration of ascorbic acid.

Conclusion
In conclusion, with the results and the graph that I got I can confidently say that there is no evidential trend between the temperature and the concentration of vitamin c in juice.

Discussion
I have carried out an investigation to check the effect of temperature on vitamin C by heating up juice containing vitamin C. My results vary from temperature to temperature following no trend, and due to this I can confidently say that my method was faulty. A few factors may have caused these wayward results and I will be discussing them. I left the volumetric cylinder containing potassium iodate (0.002mol L-1) out in the room over the week that I did this experiment, and because of this the temperature of the potassium iodate may have varied day by day. I did however, keep the volumetric cylinder in the same area of the room at all times, but I could not have controlled the weather, and due to this some days the sun may have shined on that area while other days it may have not. What I should have done was place the volumetric cylinder in a fridge or a cooling room that stays at a steady temperature to ensure that I was using the same temperature of potassium iodate for each of the experiments. I believe my titrating was accurate as it only took me three attempts to obtain three consistent results for the heated up juices, with one exception of the room temperature taking six attempts to obtain three consistent results. I cleaned my equipment thoroughly and correctly by making sure that before each experiment I did, I flushed every piece of equipment with distilled water. I also ensured that I used the exact same measuring cylinder of 10mL for the solutions that I had to gather, and I ensured that I used the exact same equipment to obtain my distilled water. I also refilled my smaller bottles of distilled water with the same large bottle of distilled water for each experiment. I used a separate dropper for each solution, but the same dropper on each solution. I measured all my values at eye level to ensure accurate measurements. Doing all of this made my titrating accurate and also eliminated contamination of my solutions and equipment. The methods of heating the juice solution that I took could be accountable for the random variation between each temperature and the overall wayward trend. We used a water bath for each of the o temperatures that we heated except for the 80 C experiment. The problem with the water bath was that it o o could not heat the solution up to 80 C and this caused me to result to using a Bunsen burner for the 80 C o test. By using a Bunsen burner instead of a water bath for one of the 80 C experiment, my method would have eliminated fair testing as not all of the independent variables were gathered through the same procedure of heating. A Bunsen burner, when heating the solution, continues to heat the solution even o after you have reached the 80 C and the equipment containing the solution was taken off the gauze mat o when the Bunsen burner reached 80 C, so this would have caused the temperature of the solution to ascend higher than the wanted temperature. A Bunsen burner also heats the solutions at a rapid speed because it is on top of a wild flame, while in a water bath, the solution is takes longer to reach the desired temperature. It also takes longer in the water bath to heat the solution that has a higher temperature such o o as the 70 C than a solution that has a lower temperature such as the 30 C. This tells us that temperatures that are higher have been heated for longer than temperatures that are lower. My concentrations vary uncontrollably and unpredictably from each test and follow no smooth trends. My o o 30 C experiment concentration is almost three times as much as my room temperature (20 C) and then o o the concentration for 40 C drops almost a third of the 30 C experiment. This may have been an error in my titration and heating, but 3 concordant results supports reasons why this may have been other factors too. The juice that I was using may have had hard to see pulp in it and this pulp may have broken off when heat was applied. If this occurred, then it means that as the pulp was broken off more as the temperature was higher and because of this it more vitamin c may have broken off at higher temperatures which provided an unpredictable trend. I also did not use the same juice from the same bottle for all of the

experiments, as these experiments were done in the space of a week, and because of this the bottles may have been muddled up and switched around which made it hard for me to determine what bottle of juice I used for each test and therefore some of the juice may have had less pulp or other things getting in the way while others may have had more, and this also could explain the wayward trend. My experiment was carried out over the space of a week. Because of this I had factors that I could not control. I did not remake the potassium iodate and potassium iodine solutions, but instead I re used them and didnt remake them once. This may have affected the experiments as the potassium iodate and potassium iodine was kept in a room which varied in room temperature from day to day as the weather varied from day to day. Some days it may have been really warm outside which caused the blinds and windows to be open to let in cool air, while other days it may have been cold outside and the blinds and windows may have been closed. Also my potassium iodate and potassium iodine solutions werent the same ones for all of the experiments as I joined a group to work in, and we used their solutions and the solutions I made myself were put aside. These factors could explain the reason for no trend occurring. Heating vitamin c reduces the amount of vitamin c. The result of my experiment that I carried out does not support this. A reason for this may be because I did not heat my solutions for a long time. Heating vitamin c would reduce the amount of vitamin c, but the time you heat it for and the temperature you heat it to would also be a major factor in determining the amount of vitamin c being reduced. If I were to carry out this experiment again, I would use time as the independent variable instead of temperature. During the titration, the iodate being added to the acidic solution with iodide ions makes an oxidationreduction reaction occur. Iodate ions are being reduced and then form iodine.

IO3 + 6 H+ + 5 e I2 + 3 H2O
This mixture causes the iodide ions to oxidize and form iodine.

2 I I2 + 2 e
This is the reaction of iodate and iodide.

IO3 + 5 I + 6 H+ 3 I2 + 3 H2O
The forming iodine oxidizes the vitamin c to dehydroascorbic acid while the iodine is being reduced into iodide.

ascorbic acid + I2 2 I + dehydroascorbic acid

The reason for the experiment changing into a navy blue-ish colour is because the iodine that is formed is reduced to iodide in the presence of ascorbic acid. When there is no more ascorbic acid left due to it being oxidized, the excess iodine reacts with the starch indicator and this is the reason why the experiment turns to a navy blue-ish colour. The people that will most likely find my information on vitamin C most useful and interesting are people who are having problems with vitamin C such as suffering from a deficiency of vitamin C in their daily diet and this information could help them increase their daily intake so they can reach an ideal intake of vitamin C in their diet. Other people that would be interested in my information are people that produce products which have vitamin C in them, for example people who produce orange juice and vitamin C tablets. They will find this information interesting because theyll know how and where to store their products in order to obtain the highest amount of vitamin C they could possibly have.

Bibliography
En.wikepedia.org/wiki/vitamin_C www.umass.edu/nibble/infofile/vitamine.html www.eatingwell.com article why do we need vitamin C? www.nlm.niln.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002404.htm www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar99/920691753.ch.r.html www.livestrong.com/atricle/458738-can-the-body-store-vitamin-C/ http://www.outreach.canterbury.ac.nz/chemistry/documents/vitaminc_iodate.pdf