SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF THE ACID DISSOCIATION

CONSTANT OF METHYL RED

Submitted By: Frances Abegail G. Quezon
Spectrophotometry is an instrumental type of analysis. In particular, it
is a method relating the absorption of light to chemical concentration. [1]
Spectrophotometry makes use of an instrument called a spectrophotometer.
A spectrophotometer is an instrument that determines the absorbance of a
given solution. This experiment made use of a UV Vis Double-Beam
Spectrophotometer. The objective of the experiment is to determine the K a of
methyl red. Methyl red was present in 2 species, HMR and MR -. The
wavelength at maximum absorption at both HMR and MR - was determined
and the absorbance of the standard and sample solutions were determined at
both wavelengths.
Beer-Lambert law or Beers law provides a direct relationship between
light absorbance and analyte concentration. Stated below is the said law:
A = bc (1) [2]
where A = absorbance
= molar absorptivity coefficient
b = path length in cm
c = analyte molar concentration
This equation could also be treated as a linear equation with A = y, b = m
and c = x. The y-intercept b, in the linear equation y = mx + b, is assumed to
be 0, but experimental errors would usually cause a non-zero value for the yintercept. Using Beers law requires using carefully matched cells in the
instrument since mismatched cells would cause the y-intercept to be a value
far from 0. [3]
However, Beers law is limited to monochromatic light only. [3] This is
the reason why there are 4 values used for the molar absorptivity coefficient.
The absorbance of the standard solution at a certain wavelength was plotted
against the solutions concentration. Using linear regression, the slope was
obtained. The slope is equal to since path length is just 1.
Table 1. Absorptivity Coefficents
Solution
1
2
3
4
5
6
No.
Absorbanc
0.746
0.478
0.278
0.031
0.024
0.017
e HMR
(HMR)
50, 534. 59139
1,511. 876699
Absorbanc
0.065
0.042
0.026
0.321
0.218
0.115
e
MR ( MR-)
4211.112286
22.246.18571
These molar absorptivity coefficients were used to calculate the [MR -]
and [HMR]. The following equations were used:
A HMR = (HMR, HMR)b[HMR] + (MR-,HMR)b[MR-] (2)
A MR- = (HMR,MR-)b[HMR] + (MR-,MR-)b[MR-]
(3)
HMR solutions have a pH of ~2 because it is acidic. MR - is the
conjugate base of HMR which is why it was acceptable for this species to
have a pH of ~8.

The pH of the solutions needed to be measured because the working

equation for this part was
pH = pKa + log ([MR-]/[HMR]) (3)
Linear regression was then used to solve for the y-intercept, pKa.

Figure 1. pKa graph

The pKa was determined to be 5.06. This has a 1.14% deviation from
the theoretical value of 5.00.[3] The Ka was determined to be 8.78 x 10-6.
Deviations from the theoretical value may be accounted for by the
following errors:
Table 2. Sources of Errors
Error
Parameter
Effect
Presence of stray light
Absorbance
Decrease
Error in solution
preparation

pKa

Indeterminate

The objective of the experiment was to calculate the Ka for methyl

read. The Ka was determined to be 8.78 x 10 -6. This has only a 1.14% percent
deviation from the theoretical value. This means that the results obtained are
accurate. The success of the experiment proves that even though BeerLamberts law is limited to monochromatic light, it can be used to process
data from polychromatic light, provided that the computations for different
wavelengths are separately processed.
REFERENCES
[1]Harris, D. Quantitative Chemical Analysis 5th ed. W.H. Freeman and
Company: New York, 2001.
[2]Institute of Chemistry. Quantitative Inorganic Analysis Laboratory Manual
[3] Skoog, D., et al. Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry 8th ed. Thomson
Learning Asia: Singapore; 2004.