Intersecting Straight Lines: Titrimetric Applications

Plotting two straight line graphs from the experimental data and determining the point of their intersection solve a number of problems in analytical chemistry (i.e., potentiometric and conductometric titrations, the composition of metal-chelate complexes and binding interactions as ligand-protein). The relation between conductometric titration and the volume of titrant added lead to segmented linear titration curves, the endpoint being defined by the intersection of the two straight line segments. The estimation of the statistical uncertainty of the end point of intersecting straight lines is a topic scarcely treated in detail in a textbook or specialized analytical monographs. For this reason, a detailed treatment with that purpose in mind is addressed in this chapter. The theoretical basis of a variety of methods such as first-order propagation of variance (random error propagation law), Fieller’s theorem and two approaches based on intersecting confidence bands are explained in detail. Several experimental systems described in the literature are the subject of study, with the aim of gaining knowledge and experience in the application of the possible methods of uncertainty estimation. Finally, the developed theory has been applied to the conductivity measurements in triplicate in the titration of a mixture of hydrochloric acid and acetic acid with potassium hydroxide

A Soluble Free-Fermion Model in d Dimensions

We consider a vertex model in d dimensions characterized by lines which run in a preferred direction. We show that this vertex model is soluble if the weights of vertices with intersecting lines are given by a free-fermion condition, and that a fugacity -1 is associated to each loop of lines. The solution is obtained by mapping the model into a dimer problem and by evaluating a Pfaffian. We also determine the critical point and the singular behavior of the free energy.Comment: 19 pages, REVTEX, 6 figure