Determination of the viscosity of water – polyethylene glycol

solution by Ostwald viscometer

I. Introduction
The interaction between particles in a liquid medium was characterized as
viscosity and was known as the liquid's thickness. The viscosity was play an
important role in a real-world such as lubrication the car, cooking, crafting and
medicine. In this experiment, ostwald viscometer was used main method using the
viscosity of polyethylene- water solution. The ostwald was a glass U- shaped
instrument with 1 and 2 branches. Branch 2 was a capillary with a defined diameter
and the norm lines a and b inscribed on it. The goal of this experiment was
determined the viscosity of water-polyethylene glycol solution by ostwald
viscometer.

II. Methodology
The chemicals used in this experiment were polyethylene glycol solutions and
water. The experimental instrument used were Ostwald viscometer, a mecury
thermometer, rubber hose , a stopwatch and other lab tools. Firstly, the viscometer
was cleaned and rinsed with distilled water. Then, the Ostwald viscometer was
used placed in a controlled temperature bath, level water was exceeded line A of
branch 2 of viscometer. Pipette was used sucked 10ml liquid into branch 1. Rubber
hose used was connected to branch 1 and slowly pumped the liquid up to level A
about 1 cm. The liquid was flowed naturally and stopwatch used was determined
the time it takes for the liquid to flow from level a to level b. Secondally, 6 glass
bottles of water-polyethylene solutions were prepared from mixing distilled water
and polyethylene (polyethylene-PEG). The concentration of PEG added were 5,
8,10,15,20,25 of mass percent respectively. Then , the temperature of the bath was
set at 25oC and the viscosity of distilled water and 6 bottles of water and PEG in
different concentrations were determined by Ostwald viscometer

III. Result
 The characteristic viscosity of PEG-water was determined at different of
concentration of PEG-water solution at presented in figure 1. At the figure 1, the
dependence of characteristic viscosity on concentration was a straight line and fits
a linear equation :
y = 8,8951x-28,596 with an R2 = . Based on figure, the characteristic viscosity
was 3,2 ( % weight)-1

Ox: Concentration of PEG

Oy: Characteristicviscosity of PEG

Figure 1: The graph line dependence of characteristic viscosity of PEG-water

solution on concentration
The viscosity of distilled water is needed to compare and calculate, are
presented in Table 1
Table 1: Extra observations
Parameters Observation
Room temperature (oC) 28
 Viscosity of distilled water at room 0.838
temperature (mN.s.m-2)
Distilled water flow time (s) 26,82
The viscosity of the solution and the specific viscosity of PEG-water were
calculated and shown in Table 2
Table 2: The viscosity and specific viscosity of PEG-water solution at different
concentration
Concentration viscosity η Specific viscosity ηspecific
(%weight) (mN.s.m-2)
5 1,005 3,96
8 1,114 4,11
10 1,216 4,50
15 1,415 4,58
20 1,726 6,29
25 2,135 6,18

IV. Discussion
The viscosity of water-polyethylene solution was determined by ostwald
viscometer. The characteristic viscosity was 3.2% ( % weight)-1 and the viscosity
of water-polyethylene solution at different concentration was presented in results
section. Despite the fact that the experiment finding differed from the hypothetical
results however the different was insignificant, therefore the results was accepted.
The results was differed because the erros in doing experiment, erros of instrument
and affected of temperature

V. Conclusion
 The viscosity of water-Polyethylene solution was determined by Ostwald
viscometer. In order get to the most accurate results, the value of data was
calculated carefull. In doing the experiment, the viscosity should be kept at
constant temperature because the viscosity of solution depend on temperature: As
the temperature increases, the viscosity decreases. In addtion, during the
measurement, the solution was maintained flowing gently by Ostwald viscometer.