COLOR

Introduction:
Color is one of the vital physical parameters of water. Before any domestic and at times
industrial applications, the color in water should be eliminated, if there’s any. Pure water
doesn’t have any color. But due to decomposition of organic matters or metallic ions, for
instance, manganese or iron, surface waters are mostly colored. Color in water may vary on
suspended solids or different dissolved elements. While water that obtains a color from organic
matters generally is not considered to be a health issue; industrial waste colored-water may
need to go through color treatment process before dumping it into various water sources, for
example rivers, lakes or oceans.

General Principle:
Color caused by only dissolved substances is referred as “true color” when turbidity is removed
or filtered. While “apparent color” is the color of the whole water sample, and comprises of
color from both dissolved and suspended solids.
There are some methods available to determine water color such as standard color solution
method/visual comparison method, dilution multiple method or, spectrophotometric method.
In this experiment the water samples were tested using spectrophotometric method.
Spectrophotometric method uses light intensity of a specific wavelength. Spectrophotometer
measures how much a chemical substance absorbs light by measuring the intensity of light as a
beam of light passes through sample solution.
pH levels of the samples were reported alongside of the color values as color values are
extremely pH dependent.
The standard of color is defined as one unit of color (CU) which will be produced by 1 mg
platinum per liter in the form of chloroplatinate ion.

Apparatus:
1. Spectrophotometer
2. Color standards 1,5,10,20,50,100 and 200 color unit
3. pH meter
4. funnel, holder, beaker etc.
5. Deionized water
6. Soft lens tissues
Procedure:
(i) The spectrophotometer was prepared to start the experiment by placing deionized
(0 CU) water in the sample compartment and by pressing “Auto Zero” to calibrate
the starting point or the ‘Zero point’ of absorbance.
(ii) To calibrate other color standards in the UV spectrophotometer, water color
standards of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 CU were placed respectively in the sample
compartment and absorbance was measured and noted separately at 400 nm
wavelength.
(iii) A color calibration curve (color unit vs absorbance) was plotted.
(iv) Water samples were placed one after one and absorbances were measured and
noted at 400 nm wavelength.
(v) The sample waters’ light absorbances were plotted on the calibration curve and
color units were read off from it.
(vi) pH levels of each of the samples were recorded.

Cautions:
1. The transparent sides of the sample cell shouldn’t be touched and must be kept
clean. Soft tissue papers can be used to clean it.
2. The water samples need to be stirred properly before measuring light
absorbance as ‘apparent color’ is being measured.
3. The sample tube or blank needs to be cleaned inside after every use with
deionized water by rinsing it couple of times.

Observation:
All the samples are tested for “apparent” color
Sample Absorbance at 400nm
W1 0.001
W2 0.000
W3 0.051
W4 0.023
W5 0.106
Color calibration Curve:

Calibration curve
0.2
0.19
0.18
0.17
0.16
0.15
0.14
0.13
Absorbance at 400 nm

0.12
0.11
0.1
0.09
0.08
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Color Unit
Sample Calculation:

Sample Color Unit (PCU) pH

W1 1 7.19
W2 0 8.12
W3 57.22 7.89
W4 26.11 8.41
W5 118.33 8.48

Calibration curve
0.2
0.19
0.18
0.17
0.16
0.15
0.14
Absorbance at 400 nm

0.13
0.12
0.11
0.1
0.09
0.08
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Color Unit

Result:

Sample Source
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5

(Tap water

Salt Lake water

Creek water
Swimming pool

Flood water)

Based on the standard of these sources and the data obtained by the experiment.