TURBIDOMETRIC ANALYSIS:

Aim: To determine the turbidity of given water samples using a turbidity meter
electrode.

Apparatus Required:

1. Turbidity meter ChemiLine® CL-880

2. Beakers (100 ml) - 4

Reagents Required:

1. Distilled Water (500 ml)

2. Water sampels

Theory:

Turbidity is the decrease in the transparency of a liquid caused by the presence of un

dissolved substances. Radiated light is scattered by the un dissolved substances and
the liquid loses its transparency. It appears milky or cloudy. The radiated light collides
with a solid particle and is scattered depending on the manner of the collision (1) + (3).
If the light does not collide with any particles on its way through the liquid, the light is not
scattered (2) (dia gram).

This diagram also clearly shows the possible measuring principles. Light must be
radiated into the sample and any change analyzed. There are two ways to do this.
Either the light intensity of the light passing unchanged through the sample is measured
(2), or the intensity of the scattered light is measured (1) + (3). However, in the second
instance, the light intensity is mainly measured at an angle of 90° to the direction of the
beam.

Consequently, two types of measuring setup can be used. A differentiation is made

between the measurement of the transmitted light radiation (transmitted light
attenuation, transmission measurement) or the measurement of the scattered radiation
at an angle of 90° (nephelometric measurement).

Measurement of the transmitted light attenuation:

The measuring setup is equivalent to that of a photometer and can also be measured by
photometers that fulfill specific conditions such as the PhotoLab S12, for example. Light
is radiated into the sample cell and a photoelectric cell measures the light intensity of
the irradiated light.

Primarily, such systems are ideal for the measurement of medium-range and higher
values of turbidity. At low values of turbidity, the signal variation between the incident
radiation and the transmitted radiation is too low to achieve a good resolution.

Nephelometric measurement
In this type of turbidity measuring instrument, the scattered light is measured at an
angle of 90°. This measuring setup is ideally suited to measuring low values of turbidity.

Some typical turbidity values:

Values that lie below 0.02 NTU are physically impossible. This is the turbidity value of
pure water and is determined by the effect of the water molecules to light. Strictly
speaking, this does not refer to turbidity in the real sense, but to non-suppressible
physical characteristics.

Procedure:
Nephelometric measurement
With regard to the dependency of the relative signal of a nephelometer on the actual
turbidity of a sample, the curve follows an unusual course at first glance. There are
three clearly different ranges:

The maximum value that can be achieved with a conventional nephelometric

measurement is, on the whole, dependent on the geometry of the measuring
instrument.

Primarily, the nephelometric measurement is impressive in the very low measuring

range as indicated by the following diagram showing the dependency of 90° scattered
light signals of the turbidity measurement in the range of <10 NTU.
In this experiment, we use the Chemline Cl-880 Nephalometer. The instrument uses
light of 850 nm generated form tungsten lamp for measurement. This instrument has
different sensitivity for different range. This instrument has following ranges 1 NTU, 10
NTU, 100 NTU, 500 NTU. First step of experiment includes selection of appropriate
range and calibration of instrument with distilled water or blank. Second step is to
measure the turbidity of given samples.

Observation Table:
Tabulate the observed turbidity for all given water samples.

Result:
Report the observed Turbidity values as the final outcome.