MUKUBA UNIVERSITY

DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

CHE 340 TUTORIAL SHEET 2

1. (a) Sucrose can be enzymatically broken down into fructose and glucose by the enzyme
invertase.

Sucrose Glucose + Fructose

The following procedure was used to determine the sucrose content of sweet potatoes:
A 82.3 g sample of sweet potato was chopped into a juice. The juice was carefully collected
(lots of washings) along with a buffer solution to form a final solution volume of 500.0 mL.
Several 3.00 mL aliquots were taken and analyzed by a spectroscopic technique for glucose.
Samples without any added enzyme determined the free glucose concentration. Three trials of
this gave the following concentrations:

212 mg/dL, 204 mg/dL, and 207 mg/dL.

Invertase was added to three more aliquots and after 20 minutes, they were also analyzed for
glucose, giving the following results:

462 /dL, 457 mg/dL, and 454 mg/dL.

(i) In units of mg/dL, what is the concentration of glucose arising from the decomposition of
sucrose in sweet potato?

(ii) Given the molar mass of glucose (180.16 g/mol) and sucrose (342.3 g/mol), what is the
percent sucrose (w/w) in the sweet potato? (Take the stoichiometry between sucrose and
glucose as 1:1)

(b). In hexane, acetone has an absorption maximum(A) at 270 nm, where its molar
absorptivity (ε), has a value of 12 M-1 cm-1. Our spectrometer can reliably measure
transmittance between 10% and 90%. What is the range of acetone concentration that can be
measured in a 1.00 cm cell under these circumstances?

(c) A solution that was 3.78 x 10-3 M in compound X had a transmittance of 0.295 when
measured in a 2.00 cm cell. What concentration of X would be required for the transmittance
to be increased by a factor of 4 when a 1.00 cm cell is used?

2. (a) Explain the phenomena upon which each of the following absorption spectroscopic
methods are based:

(i). UV-Spectroscopy
(ii). IR-spectroscopy
(iii). NMR-spectroscopy

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(b) State the difference between continuous sources and line sources of radiation used in
optical spectroscopy

(c) Define the following terms,

(i) Absorption (ii) Absorbance (iii) Transmittance (iv) Percent transmittance

(d) Several spectrophotometers have scales that read either in absorbance or in %

Transmittance. What would be the absorbance reading at 20% Transmittance?

3. (a) A radiation is measured to have a frequency of 4 M Hz. Calculate the energy and
wavelength of this type of radiation and state which region of the spectrum it belongs.
Planck’s constant = 6.63 X 10 -34

(b) Calculate the wavelength maximum for a blackbody that has been heated to 3000 oC

(c) List the four types of bending vibrations that molecules can undergo on absorption of IR
radiation

(d) Define the term Solubility

(e) The solubility product of lead (II) chloride, PbCl 2, has a value of 1.0 x 10-5mol3dm-9 at
298. Calculate the solubility at 298K, of lead (II) chloride in:

(i) Pure water

(ii) A solution of lead(II) nitrate, Pb(NO3)2, in which the total concentration of lead ions
is 0.20M

4. (a) During any gravimetric analysis involving precipitation of analyte, the precipitates tend
to carry down from the solution other substances that are no supposed to be part of it. The
following are some of the known ways impurities can be precipitated.
For each one of them, Explain (i) what it is and (ii) how the foreign materials in the
precipitate may be removed were possible.

(i) Occlusion
(ii) Inclusion
(iii) Surface adsorption
(iv) Isomorphous Replacement

(b) (i) Discuss the principle of behind chromatographic technique

(ii) Distinguish between the stationary phase and the mobile phase in chromatography

(iii) Distinguish between column chromatography and planar chromatography

(iv) Using a clearly labelled diagram, describe the components of a Gas chromatograph