Determination of

Refractive Index
and Optical
Rotation
Farra Rahmalia Safitri H - 10717204
Audrey Angeline Aipassa - 10717207
Aim
1. To determine the refractive index of water using refractometer
2. To determine the refractive index of glycerol in variation of concentration
using refractometer
3. To determine concentration of glycerol solution in water based on the
glycerol refractive index calibration curve
Basic Principle: Determination of Refractive Index
Refractive index describes the ratio of the velocity of a given wavelength
in the air (or vacuum) and velocity of wavelength in a specified medium.
Uses:
● To determine concentration of materials.
● To establish the identity and purity of a chemical
compound.
● To ascertain the arrangement of atoms within the
molecule.
Snell's Law: incident light can refract or "bend" at the
boundary between opposite speeds.
Where :
i : Angle of Incident Ray
r : Angle of Refraction Ray
n : Refractive Index
Refractometer is used to determine the refractive
index of substances dissolved in water and certain
oils.

Principle: light refraction through liquids

Work mechanism:
Two prisms with liquid placed in between. A light is
crossed to the lower prism, then crosses the liquid
and eventually crosses the upper prism, where the
adjustment for incident ray is 90 degree which
means light will be maximally refracted. The
maximum refractive angle is termed critical
refractive angle.

Observation is done on the telescope.

Basic Principle: Optical Rotation
Optical rotation is a
primary angle of plane Polarimeter: an instrument used to measure
polarized light from an the amount of rotation by an optically active
optically active compound. substance

Chirality: geometric
property of substance
that are optically active
(able to rotate the place
polarized light).
Procedure
1. Determination of Refractive Index of Water
Put Abbe Refractometer near the window so that the light
will gets to the light hole of the refractometer easily

Open the prism clamp, put 1 drop of ethanol 70% to clean the prism and dry it with lens paper.
Ethanol is considered suitable to clean the refractometer prism because it takes fewer time to dry
and lens paper is also used to speed up the drying process because if it is compared to tissue,
lens paper is proven to not to have fibers that can stick to the refractometer prism and interfere
with refractive index measurements

As soon as the prism dries, few drops of aquadest is added on top of the prism
and the clamp if closed in order to allows the light to travels through the water
Procedure
1. Determination of Refractive Index of Water

Focus the cross-lines of the refractometer by rotating the eyepiece until

the dark part of the circle coincides the intersection of the cross-lines.

Rotate the dispersion compensator until the colored fringe in the

refractometer disappears. Both of this processes are the process of
changing the polychromatic to monochromatic, where the
monochromatic light will be continuous. When it is done, the refractive
index can be read out from the scale on the other telescope.

Read out the scale of refractive index and repeat all the steps 3 times
in order to find the mean of refraction index, this triplo procedure is
conducted to obtained the most accurate refractive index value
Procedure
2. Assay of refractive index of solutions of glycerol
Refractive index of standard solution of glycerol is determined (15,
20, 25,30, 35 % v/v). This is done to see the rend between different
concentration.

Establish calibration curve of concentrations vs. refractive

index

Refractive index is determined through the Step 1.

Concentration of glycerol of each sample by using the

calibration curve.
Result
Glycerol’s Standard Solution
Result
Glycerol Refractive Index Calibration Curve
Result
Glycerol Sample Concentration Determination

For Y = Refractive Index of Glycerol Sample = 1364.34

Result
Error Percentage of Glycerol Concentration Determination
Discussion: Result
The Concentration of Glycerol Solution Sample Used = 26.02%

Calculated Error of Concentration Determination = 4.08%

This difference of concentration calculation is mainly caused by :

● Misreading of the refractometer scale

● Inaccuracy of determining the projection of refractometer seen through
the refractometer hole
● The black line barrier on the refractometer hole might not be as clear as it
has to be so it interfere the reading of the scale itself
Discussion : Factor Influencing Refractive Index
From the data we see that when the concentration increases the refractive
index also increases, why?

Concentration of Sample

This phenomena occurs because higher concentration of glycerol tend to

make the liquid sample denser hence the angle of refractive ray will be
decreases as the speed of light will slows down when it gets through the
denser liquid
Discussion: Factor Influencing Refractive Index
From the data we see that when the concentration increases the refractive
index also increases, why?

Temperature

Temperature rise will decrease the refractive index, as liquid becomes less
dense and less viscous and cause light to travel faster in the medium.
Suggestion for procedure or technical work
- Human error ⇒ digital refractometer may be used for higher precision
and accuracy.
- Measure the temperature, more accurate data