Chemistry - How to find the vitamin C content of orange juice?

Solution 1:

Iodine and iodide will form triiodide in aqeous solution. This is a common way to increase the solubility of $\ce{I2}$ in water. For a titration, one will use excess $\ce{KI}$ and control the formation of iodide by adding $\ce{KIO3}$ using a burette.

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In response to the comment:

$\ce{KI}$ contains iodide anions. I strongly suspect that an excess of $\ce{KI}$ was used (more than fivefold compared to $\ce{KIO3}$), leaving enough iodide anions to form the triiodide. Also note that effectively a $\ce{I-}$ can be subtracted from either side of the second equation of the question.

Solution 2:

One way to determine the amount of vitamin C in food is to use a redox titration. The redox reaction is better than an acid-base titration since there are additional acids in a juice, but few of them interfere with the oxidation of ascorbic acid by iodine.

Iodine is relatively insoluble, but this can be improved by complexing the iodine with iodide to form triiodide:

$$\ce{I2 + I- <=> I3-}$$

Triiodide oxidizes vitamin C to form dehydroascorbic acid: $$\ce{C6H8O6 + I3- + H2O → C6H6O6 + 3I- + 2H+}$$ As long as vitamin C is present in the solution, the triiodide is converted to the iodide ion very quickly. However, when all the vitamin C is oxidized, iodine and triiodide will be present, which reacts with starch to form a blue-black complex. The blue-black color is the endpoint of the titration.

This titration procedure is appropriate for testing the amount of vitamin C in vitamin C tablets, juices, and fresh, frozen, or packaged fruits and vegetables. The titration can be performed using just iodine solution and not iodate, but the iodate solution is more stable and gives a more accurate result.`

See: https://www.jacobtuition.co.uk/post/inspirational-ideas-for-your-chemistry-ib-ia