What is the Dye Composition of a Drink?-

Exploration Laboratory

Background

There are many naturally

occurring and artificial dyes

approved for human consumption

by the United States Food and

Drug Administration. In this lab

you will determine how many

milligrams of certain dyes are

present in a powdered drink mix.

We will focus our attention on

three dyes that are commonly

used: Yellow Dye 5, Red Dye 40,

and Blue Dye 1. Ultimately you

will determine how much dye you

are ingesting if you drink one

serving of the drink. A rival

company wants to know what dyes (Yellow 5, Red 40, or Blue 1) are in the

powdered drink mix and how much of each dye is in the powdered drink mix.

Experiment

Because we are trying to quantify molecules that have specific colors, this aim

makes using UV-Vis spectrophotometry an ideal tool.

This is a two-week lab where you are tasked with answering the questions above.

In the first week of the laboratory, you will plan your experiments and start to

carryout experiments. In the second week of the laboratory, you will finish

carrying out data collection and analyzing the data to answer the questions.

Available Materials

Stock solutions of known concentrations of Yellow Dye 5, Red Dye 40, and Blue

Dye 1, Mohr pipets, 10 mL and 100 mL volumetric flasks, powdered drink mixes,

and spectrophotometers.

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Figure 9.1: "Kool Aid ready" by Andrea Black (Lacuna) is

licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.