Elizabeth Shay Lab #5 In this experiment, an instrument known as the spectrophotometer was used to determine the concentration of iron

in a vitamin tablet. The spectrophotometer is an instrument that measures transmitted light at particular wavelengths. In this experiment we used the spectrophotometer to determine the concentration of iron ions in solutions of the iron stock solution we had prepared and the vitamin tablet. The first step involved using the spectrophotometer to obtain absorbance values for one of the solutions of iron contained in test tube 6, over a wavelength range of from 360nm to 660nm. A graph of absorbance against concentration was then plotted and the wavelength value for the highpoint of the curve was noted as the lambda max. This was the wavelength value at which the absorbance readings for the other test tubes were taken. Test tubes 1 to 5 were then placed into the spectrophotometer and readings for values of absorbance obtained, giving a range of values of absorbance for known concentration. A calibration curve of absorbance against concentration was then plotted with results from test tubes 2-5(test tube 1 was excluded since it acted as the blank solution). This calibration curve would play an important role in helping to determine the concentration of iron in the vitamin tablet. To begin analysis of the vitamin tablet, the mass of the entire tablet was found and recorded as 1.438g. A sample of the powder weighing 0.041+ 0.001g was then used to make a 250ml solution. After preparing and filtering the solution, a

small amount was placed in the cuvette and the spectrophotometer allowed determining an absorbance reading. Three trials were carried out and thus three values for absorbance were found in total. The average absorbance was calculated to be 0.290+ 0.004. Based on the equation for the trend line of the calibration curve, the concentration of iron in prepared solution was determined to be 0.000 0364M + 0.0000005M. After a number of calculations, the mass of the tablet was found to be 22.4+0.9mg, which was 4.4+0.9mg away from actual value on vitamin bottle. This also represented a value of 24% for the percent error. This number was outside of the bounds or acceptable error. Fingerprints or other smudges on the sides of the cuvette are one of the factors highly suspected in the obtaining of such a high value. The presence of such smudges or prints on the side of the cuvette would have prevented some of the light from going through, thus causing spectrophotometer to read this as a higher absorbance which would be interpreted as the solution having a higher concentration than it actually had. Although the solution was filtered sufficiently in the eyes of the experimenters, it is possible that there were some finely suspended particles in solution that would have caused less light to be transmitted through the sample and thus a higher absorbance would be found and concentration of iron that was too high. The R2 (correlation coefficient number) was 0.96585. This means that the relationship between absorbance and concentration was directly proportional; a solution with a higher absorbance had a higher concentration. The extinction coefficient, which in this case was the same as the slope of the line was 6627.8 The value is a measure of how strongly a substance absorbs at a wavelength.