1INTRODUCTION This experiment was carried out to test the hypothesis that, by analyzing the absorption spectroscopy of an unknown sports drink and different dyes, the concentrations of dyes present in the drink could be determined and therefore allow for the recreation of the sports drink color. The objective was to relate wavelength, absorption, and concentration in order to solve the problem of correctly imitating the given drink. The theory of using a mass spectrometer to create absorption spectra for a substance relies on the concept of a continuous beam of light passing through a substance, wherein the light is partially absorbed and partially scattered 2 . By recording and analyzing what light is absorbed by the medium, it is able to …show more content…
Beyond this, the spectrometer data of absorbance levels led to the creation of a very accurate Beer’s Law plot, which again supported the expected outcome of successfully calculating concentrations of dyes present, however, the recreations of the dye did not produce absorption spectra that directly matched the spectrum of absorption of the original sports drink. When examining the results presented in this report, it should first be noted that the absorption spectra shown in Figure 1 reflect the original sports drink peaking in the same wavelength areas as the different concentrations of stock blue and yellow dyes. This shows that the original drink did contain some concentration of both blue and yellow dyes. If the sports drink had peak absorbance in other wavelength areas, it would have indicated the presence of different colors of dyes. Figures 2 details the information used to calculate the molarity of each dilution of dye created. An analytical approach was taken, and it was decided that the most efficient dye dilutions to test in