Absorption Spectroscopy - Lab Report Example

It is valuable since it can accurately determine very tiny analyte concentrations (to the range of up to 10-5). It employs Beer-Lambert’s law to determine concentration. This law relates the thickness of the cuvette used in the analysis with the concentration of the analyte. It can be written as A= εcl, where This experiment involves the analysis of the risk that a consumer gets exposed to when he ingests a dye present in various commercial food items. This will be accomplished by determining the concentration of the dye present in the sample by use of absorption spectroscopy and then comparing it with the measured LD50 of that dye.

To find the mass of the food dye present in the sample, the formula mass = number of moles / molar mass. The molar mass of Allura Red is 496.42 g/mol. The number of moles can be found by: moles = mass / molar mass From published literature, the LD50 of Allura Red is between 6-10 g/kg body weight (Vinaya Corporation). The amount of Allura Red that must be ingested to cause a fatality to a person whose weight is 56 kg is given by ((6g x 56 kg)/1kg). This gives a mass of 336 grams of Allura Red.

To ingest 336 grams of Allura Red in sparkling fruit water, one would have to ingest 102.893 liters of sparkling fruit water: 20 ml of the fruit water has 0.06531 grams of Allura Red. To get 336 grams the person would have to consume ((20x336)/0.06531)=102.893 liters. The mass of Allura Red found in sparkling fruit water is relatively low. This makes the dye relatively harmless to human beings. The value obtained is relatively low, because of this; it can be said with a relatively high degree of confidence that the experiment was successful.

It is possible errors were introduced into the experiment during the handling of the cuvettes. It is possible that the sides of the cuvettes were touched with dirty hands while they were being filled and then being placed onto the spectrometer. This might