IFET COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

(AN AUTONOMOUS INSTITUTION)

VILLUPURAM

BASIC SCIENCE PROJECT

CEMP – 2020
Subject Code: 19UGEBP201

Homemade Colorimeter
By

Name: E. Kathiravan & P . Mohan

Department: Mechanical Engineering
Year: I

Under the guidance of

Name: Mrs K. LAWRENCE MARY

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR\ CHEMISTRY

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 IFET COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
(AN AUTONOMOUS INSTITUTION)
VILLUPURAM – 605108.

CERTIFICATE
Name : E. Kathiravan & P. Mohan

Register No. : 201051015, 201051017

Certified that the project on HOMEMADE COLORIMETER is a

bonafide record of work done by the candidate in the Second semester of

B.E MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. This project was exhibited and evaluated

during CEMP – 2021.

Signature of the Guide Head of the Department

Internal Examiner External Examiner

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 HOMEMADE COLORIMETER

Author : E. Kathiravan & P. Mohan

Domain: CHEMISTRY

ABSTRACT:

This project aims to develop a simple but accurate gadget for the determination of a
sample´s concentration. This instrument uses the optical interaction of the molecules with a source
of light to determine the concentration of a sample.

INTRODUCTION:

A colorimeter is a relatively simple sensor device consisting of a light source, sample

(cuvette) holder, light intensity sensor and means of controlling the light source and integrating
transmitted light intensity. Incident light is generally filtered allowing only a narrow band near the
absorbance peak for a given dissolved species. The method requires a blank solution for calibration
(zero) and reports results in absorbance units, transmittance or applies the Beer-Lambert law to
report results as concentration.

CONSTRUCTION:

The construction and design are very simple.

It consists in the following parts: A light source, which consists in 3 primary LED (green,
yellow and blue)and an additional one which is a multirange LED, which means that generates all
the colours in a sequence, starting by red and finishing by blue, so this is used for scanning the full

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visible spectra. The LEDs are connected to a 3 v battery, this is no shown in the picture. Then, there
is a small hole that is used as a support for holding the test tube that contents our sample. And
finally immediately next to the test tube, there is a photoelectric cell that turns light into electric
current, this cell is also connected to a small voltmeter which allows us to measure the voltage
generated by the cell as a consequence of the non-absorbed light. The measured voltage is used to
determine the concentration of an unknown by using the concentration of the known solution’s
voltage.

PROCESS:

The LEDs generate a continuous source of light of a determined wavelength range, this
light travels through the chamber and gets to the test tube, there the electromagnetic radiation
interacts with the molecules of our sample, after that the molecules have absorbed part of the light
emitted by the LED, the rest of the light leaves the test tube and impacts against the photoelectric
cell, when that photons impact against the surface of the cell some electrons are released from the
surface generating an electric current, which travels by the wires and finally, they get the
multimeter(voltmeter), this apparatus has a small cooper coil designed for electric measurements
called(galvanometer cell) when the electrons flow pass trough this small piece an electromagnetic
force is generated, this is shown in the screen of the voltmeter as a measurement in volts. Is very
important to choose the right light source colour, which has to be the opposite of the sample´s
colour, for example, if we want to determine the concentration of a copper sulfate hydrate solution
we have to use a red light source, as the solution has an intense blue colour, this means that the
sample stuff absorbs most of the visible light except the blue one. The right light colour for a
sample is shown in the next picture:

So, the idea is that the voltage generated by the cell is related to the amount of light non
absorbed by the solution (transmittance) so, as we increase the concentration of our sample, less

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voltage should be generated. This idea is very simple and it is one of the principal techniques used
to determine the concentration of a sample, the modern instruments that are used for this propose
are called colorimeters and are similar to the one I have designed but instead of a photoelectric cell
they used a photo resistance and a diffraction grating as the way to choose their wavelength. The
physical fundaments of this apparatus are two: The Einstein Photoelectric effect and The Beer-
Lambert´s law.

APPLICATION OF COLORIMETER:

 It is widely used in hospital & laboratory for the estimation of biochemical samples, like
plasma, serum, cerebrospinal fluid( CSF ), urine.
 It is also used for quantitative estimation of serum components as well as glucose, proteins
and other various biochemical compounds.
 They are used by the food industry and by manufacturers of paints and textiles.
 They are used to test for water quality, by screening for chemicals such as chlorine, fluoride,
cyanide, dissolved oxygen, iron, molybdenum, zinc and hydrazine.
 They are also used to determine the concentrations of plant nutrients (such as phosphorus,
nitrate and ammonia) in the soil or haemoglobin in the blood and to identify substandard and
counterfeit drugs.
ADVANTAGE:
 It is inexpensive.
 Very well applicable for quantitative analysis of coloured compounds.
 Easily transportable.
DISADVANTAGE:
 Cannot be used for colourless compounds.
 It does not work in UV and IR regions.
 Similar colours from interfering substances can produce errors in results.
SUMMARY:

At first, we should construct the colorimeter using the diagram then we should prepare the
sample solution with different known concentration to measure the concentration of the unknown
solution. Using the cuvette we can test the sample in the colorimeter. Using the resistance of the
samples we can calculate the concentration.