Nathalie Dagmang Group 8

Co-workers: Annjaneth Briones Date Performed: February 17, 2011

Determination of Copper (II) Concentration by Colorimetric Method

The three main objectives of the experiment is to (1) define the Beer’s law and apply it to
calculations, (2) do a graphical analysis using the least squares method and (3) operate a
spectrophotometer and be acquainted with the spectrophotometric method of analysis.

The color of an object is not dictated by the light that it absorbs but from the light that it reflects
or transmits. For example, a red substance is red because it absorbs the green component of the
radiation flashed to it and transmits the red component. Hence, in the colorimetric analysis, the
maximum absorbance happens with green radiation while the minimum is with red radiation. Because
of this, the radiation to be used in colorimetric analyses should be the solution’s complementary color.
The radiation color that should be used for a particular color is shown in Figure 1.

Wavelength region, nm Color Complementary Color

400-435 Violet Yellow-green
435-480 Blue Yellow
480-490 Blue-green Orange
490-500 Green-Blue Red
500-560 Green Purple
560-580 Yellow-green Violet
580-595 Yellow Blue
595-650 Orange Blue-Green
650-750 Red Green-Blue

The object, in this experiment, a copper solution, will exhibit a particular uv-vis
spectrum derived from the maximum absorbance from the absorbance versus wavelength graph. At this
point, called the λmax, the object will absorb the color and transmit its complementary color, making the
object appear blue.

Spectrophotometry, can be used to determine the concentration of a solution using the

aforementioned concept. The main difference between simple colorimetry, another method using the
same concept, and spectrophotometry is that the former uses white light, which has only been passed
through colored filters. In spectrophotometry, uv-visible light is filtered by the wavelength selector to
become monochromatic light, or light that only falls within a narrow band of wavelengths, which is then
used to analyze a solution quantitatively.

This monochromatic light passes through the solution which causes it to attenuate or to
decrease its intensity. The net transmitted radiation is then interpreted as the absorbance of the
solution, which will then be used in calculating for its concentration.

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 The absorbing characteristics of a substance, expressed in terms of the extent of beam
attenuation, are measured as either transmittance or absorbance. Transmittance is the fraction of
incident radiation transmitted by a medium:

I
T=
I°

where I₀ = intensity of beam that passed through and P = power of beam after absorption.

Absorbance, A, on the other hand, is calculated from:

I°
A=−log 10 T =log
I

It also increases as the attenuation increases, providing a better parameter for measuring the
change in attenuation with respect to concentration, unlike transmittance which only measures the
fraction/percentage of attenuation that is constant for a given medium.

As stated in Beer’s law, the absorbance of a substance is proportional to the quantity of

absorbing material in the path of the beam. This relationship is shown in the equation:

A=εcb

where ε = molar absorptivity and c = concentration of the substance.

The molar absorptivity is dependent on the wavelength, and this dependence can be shown in
the plot of ε versus the wavelength called the absorption spectrum. The absorption spectrum can be
useful in identifying a substance and its molecular structure. The absorption spectrum of a solvent is also
taken into account when analyzing a specific substance. So that the solvent does not affect the
measurements, it should not absorb significantly in the spectrum region, or transparent, for this matter.

The Beer’s law, however, can also become inaccurate because of faulty instrument or when the
absorbing species are involved in a chemical equilibrium. For example, in the theoretical reaction:

A → B+C

the equilibrium equation is:

[ B ] [C]
k=
[A]
If the solution A is diluted by a factor of 2, the concentrations of other species are not simply
halved, same with the absorptivity, making a more complicated change in absorbance. This case violates
the beer’s law.

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 Also some reactions may occur that produce products which can also act as absorbing species
and affect the measured absorbance. The equipment may also flash light that is not monochromatic as it
is hard to limit the wavelength of light within only one band, as the name “monochromatic” suggests.

In the experiment, a calibration curve was obtained from the concentration and absorbance
data measured from the spectrophotometer.

y=( 7.4 ×10−4 ) x+(8.4 × 10−3 )

This equation was then used to calculate for the concentration of an unknown sample of which
the absorbances are measured. The calculations done yielded an average of 188 ppm Cu 2+.

Trial Absorbance Concentration of Cu2+, ppm

1 0.150 191
2 0.149 190
3 0.144 183
Average 0.148 188

The additivity law of absorptivities state that if more than one absorbing species is present, A
can be calculated from the sum of all absorbances of all the species. Thus, it is important to get the
absorbance of a “blank” solution, where only the contaminants, or the species not to be analyzed, are
present. The obtained absorbance of the blank solution will then be subtracted from the solutions to be
measured afterwards. In this case, ammonia was used to form deep-colored blue complexes with
copper. Because only the copper concentration is needed, the blank solution used was composed of an
ammonia solution. Other contaminants that may be present only in some of the samples will affect the
accuracy of the measured absorbances.

Other possible sources of error are the contamination of the container of the solution with
fingerprints, droplets of other solutions and such, and the presence of undissolved particles. Some light
coming from the outside of the equipment may also enter or the internal light may reflect within the
equipment and affect the light passing through the solution.