Part 21

=117. Volumetric Method used in this Laboratory.=—The alkaline copper solution preferred in this laboratory has the composition proposed by Violette. The copper sulfate and alkaline tartrate solutions are kept in separate vessels and mixed in proper proportions immediately before use, and diluted with about three volumes of water. The reduction is accomplished in a long test tube at least twenty-five centimeters in length, and from thirty-five to forty millimeters in diameter.

The sugar solution employed should contain approximately one per cent of reducing sugar. If it should have a greater content it should be reduced with water to approximately the one named. If it have a less content, it should be evaporated in a vacuum at a low temperature until it reaches the strength mentioned above. A preliminary test will indicate almost the exact quantity of the sugar solution to be added to secure a complete reduction of the copper. This having been determined the whole quantity should be added at once to the boiling copper solution, the test tube held in the open flame of a lamp giving a large circular flame and the contents of the tube kept in brisk ebullition for just two minutes. The lamp is withdrawn and the precipitated suboxid allowed to settle. If a distinct blue color remain an additional quantity of the sugar solution is added and again boiled for two minutes. When the blue coloration is no longer distinct, the presence or absence of copper is determined by aspirating a drop or two of the hot solution with the apparatus described below. This clear filtered liquor is then brought into contact with a drop of potassium ferrocyanid solution acidulated with acetic. The production of a brown precipitate or color indicates that some copper is still present, in which case an additional quantity of the sugar solution is added and the operation continued as described above until after the last addition of sugar solution no coloration is produced.

=118. The Filtering Tube.=—The filtering tube used in the above operation is made of a long piece of narrow glass tubing with thick walls. The length of the tube should be from forty to forty-five centimeters. One end of the tube being softened in the flame is pressed against a block of wood so as to form a flange. Over this flange is tied a piece of fine linen.

Instead of using a linen diaphragm the tube is greatly improved, as suggested by Knorr, by sealing into the end of the tube while hot a perforated platinum disk. Before using, the tube is dipped into a vessel containing some suspended asbestos felt and by aspiration a thin felt of asbestos is formed over the outer surface of the platinum disk. By inverting the tube the water which has entered during aspiration is removed. The tube thus prepared is dipped into the boiling solution in the test tube above described and aspiration continued until a drop of the liquor has entered the tube. It is then removed from the boiling solution, the asbestos felt wiped off with a clean towel, and the drop of liquor in the tube blown through the openings in the platinum disk and brought into contact with a drop of potassium ferrocyanid in the usual way. In this way a drop of the liquor is secured without any danger of a reoxidation of the copper which may sometimes take place on cooling.

The careful analyst by working in this way with the volumetric method is able to secure highly accurate results. The apparatus used is shown in the accompanying illustration.

=119. Suppression of the Error Caused by the Action of the Alkali on Reducing Sugars.=—Three methods are proposed by Gaud for correcting or suppressing the error due to the action of the alkali upon reducing sugars. In the first place, the common method followed may be employed, depending upon the use of an alkaline copper solution of known composition and the employment of a reducing sugar solution of a strength varying between one-half and one per cent. The error which is introduced into such a reaction is a constant one and the solution having been tested once for all against pure sugar is capable of giving fairly accurate results.

In the second place, a table may be constructed in which the error is determined for sugar solutions for varying strengths, viz., from one-tenth of one per cent to ten per cent. If y represent the error and x the exact percentage of reducing sugar present then the correction may be made by the following formula;

y = -0.00004801x + 0.02876359x².

In order to use this formula in practice the percentage of reducing sugar obtained by the actual analysis must be introduced and may be represented by θ. The formula for correction then becomes 0.02876x² - 1.000048x + θ = 0; whence the value of x is easily computed.

In the third place, the error may be eliminated by substituting for an alkali which acts upon the glucose one which does not, viz., ammonia. At the temperature of boiling water ammonia does not have any decomposing effect upon reducing sugars. It is important, however, that the reduction take place in an inert atmosphere in order to avoid the oxidation of the dissolved cuprous oxid and the temperature need not be carried beyond 80°. The end of the reaction can be easily distinguished in this case by the disappearance of the blue color. When one reaction is finished the copper may be completely reoxidized by conducting through it a current of air or oxygen for half an hour, when an additional quantity of ammonia may be added to supply any that may have evaporated, and a new reduction accomplished with exactly the same quantity of copper as was used in the first. The solution used by Gaud contains 36.65 grams of crystallized copper sulfate dissolved in water and the volume completed to one liter with ordinary aqueous ammonia.

=120. Permanganate Process for the Estimation of Reducing Sugars.=—Dextrose, invert sugar, and other reducing sugars can also be determined with a fair degree of accuracy by an indirect volumetric process, in which a standard solution of potassium permanganate is used as the final reagent. The principle of the process is based upon the observation that two molecules of dextrose reduce from an alkaline cupric tartrate solution five molecules of cuprous oxid. The five molecules of cuprous oxid thus precipitated when added to an acid solution of ferric sulfate, will change five molecules of the ferric sulfate to ten molecules of ferrous sulfate. The reaction is illustrated by the following equation:

{ 5Cu₂O } + { 5Fe₂(SO₄)₃ } + { 5H₂SO₄ } = { 10CuSO₄ } {715 parts} { 2000 parts } {490 parts} {1595 parts}

+ { 10FeSO₄ } + { 5H₂O } {1520 parts} {90 parts}

The ten molecules of ferrous sulfate formed as indicated in the above reaction, are reoxidized to ferric sulfate by a set solution of potassium permanganate. This reaction is illustrated by the equation given below:

{ 10FeSO₄ } + { K₂Mn₂O₈ } + { 5H₂SO₄ } = { 5Fe₂(SO₄)₂ } {1520 parts} {316.2 parts} {784 parts} { 2000 parts }

+ { 2MnSO₄ } + { K₂SO₄ } + { 8H₂O } {302 parts} {174.2 parts} {144 parts}.

By the study of the above equations it is seen that two molecules of dextrose or other similar reducing sugar, are equivalent to one molecule of potassium permanganate, as is shown by the following equations:

{ 2C₆H₁₂O₆ } = { 5Cu₂O } = { 10FeSO₄ } = { K₂Mn₂O₈ } { 360 parts } {715 parts} {1520 parts} {316.2 parts}

It is thus seen that 316.2 parts by weight of potassium permanganate are equivalent to 360 parts by weight of dextrose; or one part of permanganate corresponds to 1.1385 parts by weight of dextrose. If, therefore, the amount of permanganate required in the above reaction to restore the iron to the ferric condition, be multiplied by the factor mentioned above, the quotient will represent in weight the amount of dextrose which enters into the reaction. The standard solution of potassium permanganate should contain 4.392 grams of the salt in a liter. One cubic centimeter of this solution is equivalent to five milligrams of dextrose.

=121. Manipulation.=—The saccharine solution whose strength is to be determined should contain approximately about one per cent of sugar. Of this solution ten cubic centimeters are placed in a porcelain dish together with a considerable excess of fehling solution. When no sucrose is present, the mixture may be heated to the temperature of boiling water and kept at that temperature for a few minutes until all the reducing sugar is oxidized. There should be enough of the copper solution used to maintain a strong blue coloration at the end of the reaction. A greater uniformity of results will be secured by using in all cases a considerable excess of the copper solution. When sucrose or other non-reducing sugars are present, the temperature of the reaction should not be allowed to exceed 80° and the heating may be continued somewhat longer. At this temperature the copper solution is absolutely without action on sucrose. The precipitated suboxid is allowed to settle, the supernatant liquid poured off through a filter and the suboxid washed thoroughly a number of times by decantation with hot water, the washings being poured through the filter. This process of washing is greatly facilitated by decanting the supernatant liquid from the porcelain dish first into a beaker and from this into a third beaker and so on until no suboxid is carried off. Finally the wash water is poured through a filter-paper bringing as little as possible of the suboxid onto the paper. The suboxid on the filter-paper and in the beakers is next dissolved in a solution of ferric sulfate made strongly acid with sulfuric; or in a sulfuric acid solution of ammonia ferric sulfate which is more easily obtained free from impurities than the ferric sulfate. When all is dissolved from the beakers the solution is poured upon the suboxid which still remains in the porcelain dish. When the solution is complete it is washed into a half liter flask and all the vessels which contain the suboxid are also thoroughly washed and the wash waters added to the same flask. The whole is rendered strongly acid with sulfuric and made up to a volume of half a liter.

The process carried out as directed, when tested against pure sugar, gives good results, not varying from the actual content of the sugar by more than one-tenth per cent below or three-tenths above the true content. The distinct pink coloration imparted to the solution by the permanganate solution as soon as the iron is all oxidized to the ferric state marks sharply the end of the reaction. In this respect this process is very much to be preferred to the usual volumetric processes depending upon the coloration produced with potassium ferrocyanid by a copper salt for distinguishing the end of the reaction. It is less convenient than the ordinary volumetric process by reason of the somewhat tedious method of washing the precipitated cuprous oxid. When a large number of analyses is to be made, however, the whole can be washed with no more expenditure of time than is required for a single sample. One analyst can, in this way, easily attend to fifty or a hundred determinations at a time.

In the application of the permanganate method to the analysis of the juices of sugar cane and sorghum it is directed to take 100 cubic centimeters of the expressed juice and clarify by the addition of twenty-five cubic centimeters of basic lead acetate, diluted with water, containing enough of the lead acetate, however, to produce a complete clarification. It is not necessary to remove the excess of lead from the filtrate before the determination. Ten cubic centimeters of the filtrate correspond to eight cubic centimeters of the original juice. For percentage calculation the specific gravity of the original juice must be known. Before the addition of the alkaline copper solution, from fifty to seventy-five cubic centimeters of water should be added to the clarified sugar juice and the amount of fehling solution used in each case should be from fifty to seventy-five cubic centimeters. The heating at 75° should be continued for half an hour in order to insure complete reduction and oxidation of the sugar. The sucrose can also be estimated in the same juices by inverting five cubic centimeters of the clarified juice with five cubic centimeters of dilute hydrochloric acid, by heating for an hour at a temperature not above 90°. Before adding the acid for inversion, about 100 cubic centimeters of water should be poured over the five cubic centimeters of sugar solution. The washing of the suboxid and the estimation of the amount reduced are accomplished in the manner above described.

This method has been extensively used in this laboratory and with very satisfactory results. The only practical objection which can be urged to it is in the time required for filtering. This fault is easily remedied by adopting the method of filtering through asbestos felt described in the next paragraph.

For the sake of uniformity, however, the copper solution should be boiled for a few minutes before the addition of the sugar in order to expel all oxygen, the sugar solutions should be made with recently boiled water and the precipitation of the suboxid should be accomplished by heating for just thirty minutes at 75°. At the end of this time an equal volume of cold, recently boiled, water should be added and the filtration at once accomplished.

=122. Modified Permanganate Method.=—The permanganate method as used by Ewell, in this laboratory, is conducted as follows: After the precipitate is obtained, according to the directions given in the methods described, it is thoroughly washed with hot, recently boiled water, on a gooch. The asbestos, with as much of the precipitate as possible, is transferred to the beaker in which the precipitation was made, beaten up with from twenty-five to thirty cubic centimeters of hot, recently boiled water, and from fifty to seventy-five cubic centimeters of a saturated solution of ferric sulfate in twenty-five per cent sulfuric acid are added to the beaker and then poured through the crucible to dissolve the cuprous oxid remaining therein. If the precipitate be first beaten up with water as directed, so that no large lumps of it remain, there is no difficulty in dissolving the oxid in the ferric salt; while if any lumps of the oxid be allowed to remain there is great difficulty. After the solution is obtained, it is titrated with a solution of potassium permanganate of such a strength that each cubic centimeter is equivalent to 0.01 gram of copper.

In triplicate determinations made by this method the precipitates obtained required after solution in the ferric salt, 28.7, 28.9, 28.6 cubic centimeters of potassium permanganate solution, respectively. For the quantities taken this was equivalent to an average percentage of reducing sugars of 4.19. The percentage obtained by the gravimetric method was 4.26.

The method seems to be sufficiently accurate for all ordinary purposes and is extremely rapid.

The permanganate solution used should be standardized by means of metallic iron, but in ordinary work it is also recommended to standardize by check determinations of reducing sugars in the same sample by the gravimetric method.