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Spectrophotometric Determination of Iron
Purpose
To become familiar with the principles of calorimetric analysis and to determine the iron content of an unknown sample.
Summary
Iron +II is reacted with o-phenanthroline to form a coloured complex ion. The intensity of the coloured species is measured using a Spectronic 301 spectrophotometer. A calibration curve (absorbance versus concentration) is constructed for iron +II and the concentration of the unknown iron sample is determined.
Theory
Colorimetric analysis is based on the change in the intensity of the colour of a solution with variations in concentration. Colorimetric methods represent the simplest form of absorption analysis. The human eye is used to compare the colour of the sample solution with a set of standards until a match is found.
An increase in sensitivity and accuracy results when a spectrophotometer is used to measure the colour intensity. Basically, it measures the fraction of an incident beam of light which is transmitted by a sample at a particular wavelength. You will use a Spectronic 21 in this experiment.
There are two ways to measure the difference in intensity of the light beam. One is the percent transmittance, %T, which is defined as:
T
I T
I
T o^ log
% = =log =−
For any given compound, the amount of light absorbed depends upon (a) the concentration, (b) the path length, (c) the wavelength and (d) the solvent. Absorbance is related to the concentration according to the Beer-Lambert law:
A = ε bc
where ε is the extinction coefficient (M-1cm-1), b is the solution path length (cm) and c is the concentration (moles litre-1).
Not all substances obey the linear Beer-Lambert law over all concentration ranges. Therefore you will construct a calibration curve that will provide the relationship between concentration and absorbance under the conditions used for the analysis.
In this experiment, you will analyze for iron by reacting iron +II with o-phenanthroline to form an orange-red complex ion according to the following equation:
Fe N
N
N N
N N
3 N + Fe I^ I
N
2 +
o rt ho - phenant hroline
F errous tris- o - phenanthr oline
Because we are starting with an Fe3+^ solution and in order to be quantitative, all of the iron must be reduced from Fe3+^ to Fe2+^ by the use of an excess of hydroxylamine hydrochloride.
4 Fe3+^ + 2 NH 2 OH•HCl → 4 Fe2+^ + N 2 O + 4 H+^ + H 2 O Ferric Iron Hydroxylamine Hydrochloride Ferrous Iron Nitrous Oxide Proton Water
Safety
The wearing of safety glasses/goggles is mandatory at all times. Those students wearing prescription glasses must wear goggles over their glasses. Students without prescription lenses must wear the safety glasses provided. Contact lenses should not be worn in the lab. Safety glasses/goggles
Calculations and Discussion
- Prepare a plot of absorbance versus concentration of the known solutions (express the concentration in mg Fe per 50 mL of solution). Draw the best fitting straight line through the points – this is called the Beer-Lambert Law plot.
- Place the best Absorbance value of each unknown solution onto this plot and determine their concentrations.
- Calculate the amount of iron in the unknown sample. Express this as mg of Fe per litre of the original unknown solution (mg/L Fe).
E.g. From the graph you obtain a concentration of 0.10 mg Fe/50 mL Since in step 3 we diluted the original sample 25 times and in step 4, 2 more times the concentration of the original sample is therefore:
L
mg Fe L
mL dilutionfactor mL
mg Fe 1000 100 50 ( ) 50
0. 10 × × =
- Compare your results with the accepted value
Unknown #1 Unknown #2 Unknown #3 Unknown # 173.5 mg/L 209.2 mg/L 225.6 mg/L 242.7 mg/L
and calculate the relative error.
exp ×
acceptedvalue
erimentalvalue acceptedvalue relativeerror
References
- Skoog and West, Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry, 2nd^ Ed., Chapter 29.
- Vogel, A Textbook of Quantitative Inorganic Analysis, 3rd^ Ed., p. 294, 310 and 787.
