CHM 260 LABORATORY REPORT

EXPERIMENT NO. : 2
TITLE OF EXPERIMENT : UV-VIS DETERMINATION OF AN UNKNOWN
CONCENTRATION KMNO
4
SOLUTION.
PREPARED BY : AZRILL BIN MOHAMAD NOR
STUDENT NUMBER : 2009950075
EXPERIMENT DATE : 13 JUNE 2011
SUBMISSION DATE : 27 JUNE 2011
LECRURER NAME : PN FARIDAH HANUM HJ BADRUN







Title : UV-Vis determination of an unknown concentration KMNO
4
solution.
Objective :
a) To determine the maximum wavelength of potassium permanganate.
b) To plot the calibration curve of potassium permanganate
c) To determine the concentration of an unknown solution of potassium permanganate.
Introduction :
UV-Vis spectra can be used to detect for the presence of absorbing functional groups
or chromophores. UV-visible spectroscopy is a valid, simple and cost effective method for
determining the concentration of absorbing species if applied to pure compounds, and used
with the appropriate standard curve. A standard curve relating absorbance to concentration
can be developed for any compound, and used to determine the concentration of samples
containing the same compound.
By using this UV-Vis Spectrophotometer, we can find inorganic aborbing species such
as transition element ions, lanthanides and actinides as well as inorganic complexes or
charge transfer complexes. The UV-Vis Spectrophotometer can be used for wavelength
range of 180nm to 780nm as it emit both Visible and UV light.













Instruments : UV-Vis Spectrophotometer.
Apparatus : Beaker, burette, glass rod, 100 ml volumetric flask, dropper.
Chemicals : Potassium permanganate (KMNO
4
)
Procedure :
Preparation of the KMnO
4
Standard Solutions
1 0.01 g of KMnO
4
were accurately weighted and transfered into a beaker. The solid
KMnO
4
was then dissolved with distilled water.
2 The dissolved KMnO
4
was diluted using 100mL volumetric flask and labelled as
100ppm.
3 From the stock, 5mL of solution was pipetted and diluted again in 100mL. The
solution was labelled as 5 ppm
4 The step 3 was repeated for 10 ppm,15 ppm and 20 ppm.
Preparation Of An Unknown
1 From the stock, an unknown volume was pipetted and diluted into 100mL volumetric
flask.
2 The unknown sample was transfered into a beaker and labelled as unknown







Data :
Solution Concentration (ppm) Absorbance
Standard 1 5 0.0683
Standard 2 10 0.1262
Standard 3 15 0.1963
Standard 4 20 0.2625
Unknown ? 0.2151

The concentration of the unknown = 16.5 ppm

Results :



















Questions :

1. Why is glass not suitable cell material for use in UV spectroscopy?
Because glass will absorb the UV light, thus, making the absorbance reads both
glass and sample measurement.

2. State one advantage of using the UV-Vis Spectrophotometer compared to a
Spectronic-20 for this analysis.
UV-Vis Spectrophotometer will directly plot us the graph compared to Spectronic-
20 which we have to plot the graph ourselves.

Discussion :
UV-Vis spectroscopy is based on selective absorption of electromagnetic radiation in the
180-780nm wavelength range. Absorption in UV-Vis is mainly a study of molecules and their
electronic transitions. In this experiment, a series of samples and unknown of inorganic
complex had been prepared. The inorganic complex used was KMnO
4.
The absorption
process of the complex is where the electron jumps from an orbital mostly centered on the
ligand to an orbital mostly centered on the metal ion.

The absorbance can be calculate using Beers Law: bc A

A is the absorbance of light by the sample, b is the path length of the light (in cm), c is
concentration (in molarity) and is a proportionality constant called the molar extinction
coefficient (expressed in mol
-1
cm
-1
).

After finding the
max
from the UV-Vis, the Beers Law graph was plotted for KMnO
4
and thus
the concentration of the unknown sample can bbe determine. The correlation coefficient
must be 0.9999 to get accurate reading.






Conclusion :
The
max
for this experiment is 526.0nm and the correlation coefficient is 0.99928.

Reference :
1. Douglas A. Skoog, Donald M. West, F. James Holler, Stanley R. Crouch (2004).
Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry. 8th Edition.