Blue Dye Synthesis Lab Report

Using the spectrophotometer and other calculations, a recreated version of a beverage’s dye content can be made. However, due to calculation errors, contaminates, and other bouts of human error, an exact replica of a beverage is difficult to accomplish. The recreated version of the beverage sample had a 22% absorbance error for red dye and a 51% absorbance error for blue dye. The calculations and measurements made for the red dye were evidently more accurate than those made for the blue. Thomas, K in his development of his undergraduate chemistry lab with food dye pointed out a few potential mishaps in this type of lab3. One of them was if solutions were not thoroughly mixed before being added to spectrophotometer, then the machine would pick

Also, if there were not enough, or poorly calculated, diluted solutions then that could lead to inaccurate results3. Something that potentially would’ve improved the calculations for the blue dye was a more dispersed dilution trend line while determining the dye’s absorbance (Figure 2). Another way the results could’ve been impacted is cross contamination between lab equipment. This could’ve impacted the readings of the spectrophotometer. A more obvious potential source of error could’ve been a mistake in calculations somewhere in the experiment. Also, accurate measurements was also an issue in this experiment. Using poor measuring techniques is the reason why there were two recreated solutions in Figure 6. The second recreation attempt was measured with a burette, which did improve accuracy of the solution somewhat. With the errors of this experiment now in mind, improvements in equipment sanitation, measuring techniques, and an improved knowledge of the calculations could be utilized to improve future research

On the first day of this lab, the dyes that were identified inside the beverage were red and blue. This was accomplished through the use of a spectrophotometer. The spectrophotometer is a device that measures light wavelengths and the absorbance values. Through multiple dilutions and other calculations, the absorptivity constant for each of the dyes was able to be determined. The absorptivity constant was then used in the Beer’s Law equation to find the concentration value of each dye. Using the concentration value of each dye, a recreated solution of the sample beverage was then able to be calculated and made. After running both the sample beverage and the recreated solution through the spectrophotometer, the accuracy of the dye absorbance value was calculated. The red dye absorbance value was determined to be have 22% error and the blue dye had a 51%