Skip to main content

Turbidity ---> I learnt something new!!!

This may not be a new thing to you, but to me. Turbidity in natural water is due to the presence of finely divided suspended particles of clay, sand or by microscopic organisms. Turbidity is expressed in ppm (parts per million). The standard unit of turbidity is that produced by one part of finely divided silica  in million parts of distilled water. The permissible turbidity limit in water is 5-10 NTU ( Nephelo Turbidity Units).

We did an experiment in our " instrumental methods of analysis lab"
Let me explain what we did.

Estimation of turbidity: 

Aim: To estimate the turbidity of the given solution.

Reagents: Stock Turbidity Solution.

Reagent A :
5 g of hydrazine sulphate is dissolved in 400 ml of distilled water.

Reagent B : 50 g of tetramethyl hexamine is dissolved in 400 ml of distilled water.

The reagents were mixed and made upto 1000ml with distilled water ( 4000 NTU )

Procedure: 

We took samples from the stock and prepared solutions of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 NTU. The turbiditimeter was calibrated with these samples. Blank was distilled water.
The sample we used for finding the turbidity was " Soil particles mixed with water ". Ya, we mixed soil in water purposely for doing the experiment.
We normally do our experiments in groups. our group used soil in water.

Some other interesting and cool samples used by my classmates were : 


Jelly in water ;
Pink color chalk dust in water;
Chocolate in water; ( yum yummy)
silica powder in water;

After calibrating the instrument, soil sample was used and turbidity of the sample we used was found to be 34 NTU.

Why turbidity must be measured ?

In environmental science, Pollution estimation of the water ecosystems is an important one.
Pollution is directly proportional to the turbidity. Hence turbidity is important in this case.

Turbidity of drinking water must be as very low as possible.
Turbid water is not preferred in several cases.
Growth of microbes in broth can also be measured with turbidity of the solution.
Hence , it's important to understand and learn to measure turbidity.

:)))))) veeeeeeeeee......... Happy night after a whole day of study and classes.





Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 22, 2012 at 4:43 AM

    as far as my knowledge goes 1NTU = 1mg silica
    (finely divided) in 1 lit water.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 28, 2012 at 9:36 PM

    dono exactly ....

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lowry Assay Principle and procedure

Though there are several protein assays available, the most preferred one in many laboratories is "Lowry assay". It is effective in the concentration range of 0.01 mg/ml to 1 mg/ml. And, as an additional info, the paper published describing the procedure and principle of Lowry Assay is the most cited paper in the scientific history. (Feeling like, "Wow! I want to publish one to compete with Oliver.H. Lowry"???  :P) Why Lowry?   Though there are several other protein assays, mostly Lowry assay is used in many laboratories. The reasons for preferring Lowry are: sensitivity of the assay, highly reproducible, cost effective, easy to perform. Biuret assay is generally used for higher protein concentrations like tissue samples but, Lowry for less concentrated samples and hence used in most of the molecular biology laboratories where there will be need for assaying comparatively less concentrated protein samples (in most cases where we attempt to produce enzymes). Oth...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sea Butterfly!

Neih hou!  Don't roll you eyes wondering what it is! "Neih hou" is how you say "hello" in Cantonese. Guess what, I am in Hong Kong and therefore the language Cantonese. I came to Hong Kong this summer as an intern before officially joining as a PhD Student. This is my second experience abroad, far away from home, new language, new culture, I expected me to have a "really" bad cultural shock, but, actually I experienced only 50% of what I expected. For a girl who have used the marina beach only for eating "sundal", bikini in beach was a shock (FEEL FREE TO JUDGE ME!). The first time, I went to the big wave beach here, I was the only one who was totally covered, when everyone was enjoying their Beer, I was slowly sipping my lemon juice (THE ODD ONE OUT!). I realized how beautifully different the world outside is! There is no single standard for right or wrong, it varies in different countries, in different regions around the world. And it ...
11 comments
Read more

The Butterfly flew for the first time!

Hi dear sweet lovely reader, Didn't meet you for a long time... Just after complaining about the stipend problem in the last post, I actually wanted to write a lot here, but, couldn't find time (Such a lazy girl, I am!). As you might be knowing, the author (me) is the butterfly here :P And, I flew for the first time!! YEAH! I FLEW! I flew like a butterfly! It was an awesome experience flying for the very first time! (ow, no! I dint put a trans-gene in my body and fly after getting  a pair of wings, but with a passport and VISA). I'm this girl, full of dreams wishing to do "this", "that" and "all kind of stuffs that one can do". And, one among those dreams was to fly one day! TO FLY FREE!(I mean, not free of cost :P, but liberation) I always wanted to fly in those big, big airplanes, but, I always have avoided that mode of transport. Reason? Obviously, it would burn a big hole in my dad's pocket (actually he can afford if I wan...
10 comments
Read more