Congratulations to Gladstone's Toolooa State High School which has won the finals of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Australian National Chemical Analysis Competition.

Toolooa progressed to the finals after competing in the annual Royal Australian Chemical Institute CQ Regional Schools Titration Competition, hosted and coordinated by CQUniversity in August.

It's the first CQ region win at national level for about 10 years.

Titrations are all about good volumetric skills and precision in measuring, separating and analysing constituent chemicals in unknown samples.

The competition involves the performance of 2 chemical titrations: the standardisation of the concentration of a strong base (sodium hydroxide) and  the determination of the concentration of an unknown weak acid (acetic acid).

Students must be trained carefully to develop the skills needed to handle precise volumetric apparatus (i.e. pipette and burette) and deliver the correct volumes for the reaction.

This analytical skill is very important for analysts working in industrial, chemical, clinical and research laboratories.