ABSTRACT

Acid and bases play a significant role in many areas of chemistry and
biochemistry. The substances can be classified as acids and bases based on chemical
behaviour. The objective of the experiment is to measure the pKa value of methyl red
through its absorbance spectra as a function of pH.

The experiment have part A which is the preparation of methyl red standard
solution, part B is the preparation of methyl red acidic and basic solutions and part C
is the absorption spectrum of methyl red at various pH. For part A, 5 ml of methyl red
(MR) stock solution and 50 ml of ethanol (95%) were diluted with distilled water.
Part B have 2 preparations which is for acidic solution of methyl red and basic
solution of methyl red. The preparation of acidic solution of methyl red was using 6
ml of methyl red standard solution, 10 ml of hydrochloric acid (0.1 M) and solution
was diluted with distilled water. The pH of solution was checked using pH meter.
Meanwhile preparation for basic solution of methyl red used 5 ml of methyl red
standard solution, 10 ml of sodium hydroxide (1.0 M) and solution was diluted with
distilled water. The pH of solution was checked using pH meter. For part C, a series
of methyl red standard solutions was prepared and mixed with acetic acid and also
sodium acetate. Each of the solution was diluted with distilled water and measured the
pH. The absorption spectrum for each solution were recorded using the Ultraviolet
Visible Spectrophotometer.

From the plotted graph, the intersection point of x-axis intersection graph is used
to obtained the pKa value of methyl red indicator. Based on the result obtained, it
showed that the intersection line of the x-axis and value of pKa of methyl red is
approaching 1. It described that the pKa value indicate acidic value as the value is
low.
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