Using EXCEL to Plot Various Types of Titration Graphs

EXCEL is a very popular spreadsheet software that allows the user to perform all sorts of statistical analyses on
the data. It can also perform a variety of mathematical calculations. In addition, EXCEL can also plot the data
in a variety of formats.
Note: The following instructions are written for Microsoft Office 2013 (PC Version). If you have an older
version of the EXCEL program at home, some of steps listed on this handout may not apply to your version of
the software. If you have a Mac, the instructions may be slightly different but the logistic of the functions in the
program should be very similar. There is NO NEED to save any files during the workshop period. If you do
decide to save the sample data, you can save them in your My Document folder. File saved in an EXCEL
2013 format is NOT compatible with earlier versions of EXCEL. If you are using an earlier version of EXCEL
at home, you will need to save the file correspond to the version of the EXCEL program you have.
There are, in general, three different steps when working with EXCEL. The following instructions are written
for using the sample data.
Step (I) Data Entry you will first enter the raw data for the titration of 1.0M acetic acid with 0.5M NaOH
(refer to page 4 ). Follow the instructions below to enter the data.
Select "Blank Workbook" from the home screen to open a new spreadsheet. On the spreadsheet, notice that the
columns in EXCEL are labeled as A, B, C etc. The rows of the spreadsheet are labeled as 1, 2, 3 etc. Each
cell (i.e. a rectangular box) is defined by the location of the row and column in EXCEL. For example, the very
first cell located on the upper left corner has an address of A1 in EXCEL.
Before you start entering the data, you may want to increase the width of the columns. Highlight the entire
column by clicking on the column letter or row by clicking on the row number and adjust the arrow
accordingly.
Move the cursor (or cross) to the cell with an address A1 (i.e. the very first cell in the spreadsheet). Type ml of
NaOH. Move the cursor to cell B1 and type pH. These are the labels or titles for each of the columns. Now
go to cell A2 and start entering the volume into each cell. When you are done entering the data for the volume
of NaOH, enter the data for the pH (starting from cell B2). Your spreadsheet at this point should look like the
one on page 4.

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Step (II) Setting up Data for First Derivative Graph This is where you will find how valuable a
spreadsheet program is. Now let's use the program to calculate the average volumes (column C) and the
derivatives (column D).
You are now almost ready to ask EXCEL to do some simple calculations (follow step (II) below). But before
you can generate the data for column C (average volume), and column D ((pH2-pH1)/(V2-V1)), you should
type in the headings (V2+V1)/2 into cell C1 and (pH2-pH1)/(V2-V1) into cell D1.
Locate the cell that you want to place the FIRST entry of the average volume. This should be cell C3 (Leave
cell C2 empty). To calculate the average volumes, you will need to type in a simple equation so that EXCEL
knows what you want it to do. Lets suppose V1 is located at cell A2 and V2 is located at cell A3. Go to cell C3
and type =(A2+A3)/2. Make sure you include the equal sign; otherwise, EXCEL will think you are typing a
label. A number should appear in cell C3 (check your number with the one on the sample data on page 7. They
should be similar). You are now ready to finish the rest of the data in column C. Move the cursor to the number
you just calculated (i.e. cell C3). Right click and select COPY (or simply press Ctrl C on your keyboard).
The cell C3 should now be highlighted with a dotted line. Now use your mouse and highlight the rest of the
column C by holding down the left mouse button and drag the cursor down the column C until it reaches the
location for the last data point in the column C. You can easily tell where the last data point for column C is by
looking at the location of the last data point for column A. Release the mouse button and part of the column C
should now be highlighted. Right click and select the FIRST option in PASTE (or simply press Ctrl V on
your keyboard). This option corresponds to the regular paste function of equations/functions. You just finished
generating the average volume data for column C. Check your numbers with the ones on the sample data sheet
(refer to page 5) and make sure they agree. If they do, go on and finish the calculations in column D by using
the equation =(B3-B2)/(A3-A2) for cell D3 (you should double check to make sure that the cell addresses are
correct in this equation). Complete the rest of the calculation in column D as you did earlier for column C. If
numbers are being displayed with a large number of significant figures, you may need to highlight cells D3D31, right click and select "Format Cells..." There you can change cells to "Number" values with 2 decimal
places selected. We are almost there. All you need now is to learn how to plot graphs on EXCEL.
Step (III) Plotting the Titration Graphs you are now ready to generate or reproduce the graphs on the
sample sheets.
NOTE: Before you try to plot the graphs, make sure that the X axis data is always located adjacent to and
LEFT of the Y axis data when using EXCEL.
Lets plot the full titration graph and the expanded titration graph from the raw data. If you follow step (I) and
(II) correctly, the volume of NaOH should be located in column A and the pH should be located in column B.
To generate the full titration graph, first select by highlighting all the data in both column A & B ONLY. Go to
the menu bar and click on INSERT. From the "CHARTS" group select the SCATTER subgroup and
choose the icon with only data points shown on it. A titration graph should appear on the screen. You will now
clean up, set the proper scaling, and modify the settings of the graph. Click on any area within the graph. You
should notice that the menu bar now has new items show up under Chart Tools. All you need to modify at
this point are the titles and the gridlines. Under the "Design" tab, click on ADD CHART ELEMENT and
select CHART TITLE and choose ABOVE CHART option. Type in the title for the graph. Use the other
options under ADD CHART ELEMENT to finish adding labels for the axes ("Axis Titles"). Select
GRIDLINES and activate all the major and minor gridlines for each of the primary horizontal and vertical
gridlines by selecting all combinations of Primary Major/Minor Horizontal/Vertical.
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You have just finished plotting the full titration graph (refer to Figure 1 on page 6) using EXCEL. Now go
ahead and plot the first derivative graph (i.e. column C & D).
Once you completed the first derivative graph, we will use the axes options to obtain the EXPANDED first
derivative graph (i.e. zoom in to the equivalence point region).
With the graph selected, click on ADD CHART ELEMENT under Chart Tools on the menu bar. Select
Axes. Select More Axis Options. You should see the "Format Axis" window open and the "Axis
Options" tab should be showing. On the graph there should be a box surrounding your x-axis scale. If there
isn't, click on the numbers on the x-axis to make sure you are modifying the horizontal axis options. Please
check at this point that the volume scale is reported to the hundredth decimal place. To do this, click on the
NUMBER tab below "Axis Options," "Tick Marks," and "Labels" in the "Format Axis" window. The
decimal places should be set to 2. Now select Axis Options and change the scaling for the graph. You can
now change the values by replacing the minimum value to 14.20 and change the maximum value to 14.90.
Also change the major unit to 0.10 and the minor unit to 0.02 (scale for the minor unit should always be
less than that of the major unit). By setting this scaling, you will now be able to read the volume precisely from
the graph (to the HUNDREDTH decimal place).
This is the expanded first derivative graph (refer to Figure 2 on page 6) showing just the equivalence point
region of the titration. You can now change the scaling on the Y-axis in the same way to MAXIMIZE the
scaling of the graph. You do NOT need a very fine minor gridline scaling in the pH as you did for the volume.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
For your post-lab reports, you should connect the data points by drawing smooth curves through the
data (i.e. best fit curves) by hand. Do not draw dot-to-dot. DO NOT ask EXCEL to connect the data
points for you. EXCEL does not have a function to draw best fit curves through non-linear data points.

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Sample titration data for the reaction of acetic acid with 0.5M NaOH
ml of NaOH

pH

0.03
3.02
6.17
9.63
12.04
12.59
12.99
13.91
14.04
14.13
14.15
14.20
14.25
14.33
14.36
14.41
14.43
14.52
14.55
14.58
14.63
14.70
14.75
14.81
14.89
15.00
15.51
16.08
17.21
19.31

2.59
4.03
4.46
4.82
5.29
5.39
5.53
5.92
5.99
6.09
6.14
6.21
6.28
6.37
6.47
6.59
6.78
7.09
8.21
10.36
10.91
11.17
11.32
11.44
11.53
11.66
11.97
12.16
12.35
12.55

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Sample titration data including first derivative data for

the reaction of acetic acid with 0.5M NaOH
NaOH
Volume
(mL)

pH

(V1+V2)/2

(pH2-pH1)/(V2-V1)

0.03
3.02
6.17
9.63
12.04
12.59
12.99
13.91
14.04
14.13
14.15
14.20
14.25
14.33
14.36
14.41
14.43
14.52
14.55
14.58
14.63
14.70
14.75
14.81
14.89
15.00
15.51
16.08
17.21
19.31

2.59
4.03
4.46
4.82
5.29
5.39
5.53
5.92
5.99
6.09
6.14
6.21
6.28
6.37
6.47
6.59
6.78
7.09
8.21
10.36
10.91
11.17
11.32
11.44
11.53
11.66
11.97
12.16
12.35
12.55

1.53
4.60
7.90
10.84
12.32
12.79
13.45
13.98
14.09
14.14
14.18
14.23
14.29
14.35
14.39
14.42
14.48
14.54
14.57
14.61
14.67
14.73
14.78
14.85
14.95
15.26
15.80
16.65
18.26

0.48
0.14
0.10
0.20
0.18
0.35
0.42
0.54
1.11
2.50
1.40
1.40
1.13
3.33
2.40
9.50
3.44
37.33
71.67
11.00
3.71
3.00
2.00
1.13
1.18
0.61
0.33
0.17
0.10

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Figure 1

Figure 2

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