Determination of chemical equilibrium constant of thiocyanatoiron(iii) ion complex using a colorimetric analysis of smartphone-captured images as an alternative method for high school chemistry
Saksri Supasorn(a*), Purim Jarujamrus(a), Karntarat Wuttisela(a)

a) Department of Chemistry and Center of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ubon Ratchathani University, Warin Chamrap, Ubon Ratchathani,
34190, Thailand
* saksri.supasorn[at]gmail.com


Abstract

This study is aimed to develop an alternative method for determination of the chemical equilibrium constant (K_{c}) of thiocyanatoiron(III) ion complex based on colorimetric analysis of smartphone-captured images. The various images of the ion complex captured by iPhone 6S plus and Xiaomi Redmi 8 smartphones were processed using ImageJ software in order to determine the K_{c} using a standard plot between blue color intensity and -log[Fe(SCN)]^{2+} It was found that the K_{c} were 212.007±23.95. The Kc obtained from the standard UV-Visible spectrophotometry was 218.382±6.85. The paired samples t-test analysis at the 95% significance level (p<0.05) indicated that the Kc obtained from both smartphones and the standard method were not statistically different. This experiment was implemented as an experiment for one classroom of grade-11 students at a regular public school in Thailand. The students worked in groups of 5 students and spent two hours to complete the experiment. Their determined K_{c} were in the range of 200 - 250, which consistent with our preparation result. It was found that the students obtained post-achievement test score (mean 8.43, S.D. 0.90) statistically higher than pre-achievement test score (mean 4.43, S.D. 0.97) at the 95% significance level (p<0.05). These students commented that this experiment was easy to perform and they enjoyed using their smartphone in studying chemistry.

Keywords: chemical equilibrium constant- colorimetric analysis- high school chemistry- smartphone-assisted experiment

Topic: Chemistry Education

ICMScE 2021 Conference | Conference Management System