Expt.
No: COLORIMETRIC STUDIES:
DETERMINATION OF CONCENTRATION OF KMnO4
Date: SOLUTION
AIM
To determine the molarity of the given KMnO4 solution using a colorimeter.
PRINCIPLE
When a chemical species absorbs visible light, electrons in the normal ground state are
raised to a higher energy excited state. The difference in energy between the two states of the
absorbing species is equal to the energy of the light quantum absorbed. As a beam of
monochromatic light, i.e., light of a single wavelength, passes through an absorbing solution,
the intensity of the light decreases as photons are removed from the beam. It is reasonable to
assume that the more light-absorbing entities there are in the light path and the more light-
quanta there are available to begin with, the greater is the amount of light that will be absorbed.
According to Beer-Lambert Law we can write, A=ϵ .c . l,
where A is known as the absorbance of the sample
c is the concentration of the sample, and
l is the path length that light in the cell travels.
If ϵ and l are constant for a sample, then Absorbance ( A ) ∝ concentration(c ).
MATERIALS REQUIRED
● Aqueous 0.01M KMnO4 stock solution
● Distilled water
● Colorimeter instrument
PROCEDURE
● Switch ON the colorimeter
● Set wavelength to “54” (540 nm)
● Put a cell containing distilled water and press set zero
● Preparation of solutions from Stock solution:
Prepare 0.001 M, 0.002 M, 0.003 M, 0.004 M and 0.005 M solutions.
● Place a cell containing 0.001 M solution of KMnO4 solution, measure the absorbance
and write in Table 1
● Put the next solution, e.g., 0.002 M of KMnO4 and measure its absorbance
● Complete measuring absorbance of all the known concentration solutions and also the
unknown concentration solution
● Plot Absorbance (y-axis) vs Concentration (x-axis) of all known concentration solutions
● Determine the unknown concentration of the solution from the graph.
VIT AP University, Amaravati (AP), INDIA
OBSERVATION
Table 1
Find out the λmax value with the maximum absorbance for the given solution
S. No. Wavelength (nm) Absorbance
1 430
2 470
3 490
4 520
5 550
6 610
Table 2
Find out the absorbance for the given unknown solution
Conc. of KMnO4
S. No. Absorbance
solution (M)
1 0.001
2 0.002
3 0.003
4 0.004
5 0.005
6 Unknown
RESULT
The strength of the given KMnO4 solution is : ………. mM
2/2 Department of Chemistry
School of Advanced Sciences
