Introduction Discussion

Iron is one of the most important element in
our body as it has a lot of role in a variety of
important bodily processes. It can also be found in
water in minimum amounts at concentrations lesser
than 10 milligrams per liter (mg/L) or 10 parts per
million. Iron in water came from dissolution
processes of ironstones in nature and partially from
the corrosion processes in pipes. As a secondary
contaminant, minimum amounts of iron in water
doesn’t have any harmful effects but it affect how
your drinking water tastes, smells or looks. However,
higher concentrations of this element can cause
serious effect on one’s health. The World Health
Organization (WHO) recommends 0.3 mg/L as
maximum concentration limit of iron in drinking
water. Federal and state regulations limit the iron
content of drinking water to <1 ppm, though iron is
easily determined in contaminated water
containing > 1 ppm (1 mg/l). In most water samples
iron exists in its oxidized form, (Fe (III)), due to the
presence of oxygen. Presence of high
concentrated iron in water can be easily
determined due to its brownish red color and bitter
metallic characteristic taste. In this experiment, iron
concentration in different samples of water was
determined using absorption spectrometry analysis.
The objective of this experiment is to
determine the iron content of drinking water. Iron is
an essential element in the human body. This
element can be sourced from the foods the
human body consumes. However, in the case of
processed drinking water, there must be no trace
of the said element. In line with the objective of
the experiment and with the fact that processed
water must not have traces of iron, the experiment
also aims to determine what processed drinking
water has undergone incomplete purification
process or what drinking water has not met the
quality of a purified (processed) drinking water.
First, in order to determine the
concentration of iron in the water samples, the
function of the line was derived using the data
that was derived from the UV-Vis
spectrophotometer. The function of the line that
can be derived from the data in the results is y =
0.02988x + 0.10376 and its R% value is at 99.298%.
Referring to Figure 1, the calibration curve, the line
is not perfectly straight because there were only
five standards used in this experiment. Though the
R-value is relatively high, the curve does not reflect
the value of R. Therefore, in order to derive a
straighter line of the calibration curve, there must
be more standards.

SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC
IDENTIFICATION
OF IRON IN WATER
Logan, Frances Randolf J., Lising, Audrey Nicole L., Madariaga, Vic Lorence B. SAMPLES
The concentration of iron in the unknown
Methods samples was then determined using the derived
• Weigh and dissolve 0.02 grams of Ferric chloride function of the line, which is derived from the
(FeCl) with a 0.1 M HCl solution in a small absorbance and concentration of the standard
beaker. solutions. The concentration of iron in each of the
• Transfer the solution in a 100-mL volumetric flask unknown water sample is presented below.
and add 0.1 M HCl solution up to mark. 0.4
• Prepare five small (100-mL) beakers and add 20
0.3
mL distilled water in the first beaker. A ratio of
1:3, 1:1, 3:1 20-mL HCl-Fe(Cl)3 solution must be 0.2
added in the four remaining beakers,
0.1
respectively.
• Add 2.5 mL of the 0.1 M KSCN in each of the 0
beakers. Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 Sample 5
Basing from the graph above, only Sample 2 have
shown trace amounts of iron. Moreover, all of the
Results three trials in Sample 2 are positive of iron.
Therefore, it can be concluded that from the five
Concentration Absorbance water samples, Sample 2 is not treated or purified
0 0 well due to the fact that drinking waters must not
17.22 0.6656 have any trace of iron. The source of the water
34.43 1.2621 might be an underground well, which can be a
51.65 1.6605 the iron source, or the pipes for purification used
68.86 2.0745 might be made of iron infected with rust, which
contributes to the iron content of Sample 2.

References
Basheer A.(2011). Spectrophotometric determination of iron (III) in tap water using 8-hydoxyquinoline as a chromogenic
reagent. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 10(71), pp. 16051-16057. Retrieved from
https://academicjournals.org/journal/AJB/article-full-text-pdf/BF2D65831027.
World Health Organization.(2008). Iron in Drinking-water. Background document for development of WHO Guidelines for
Drinking-water Quality. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/iron.pdf
Illinois Department of Public Health ( 2010). Iron in Drinking Water. Retrieved from
http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/factsheets/ironFS.htm