[km41]

So...

I did this experiment where I made two solutions, one of copper sulfate, one of iodine and mineral oil. 1. Is Iodine and Mineral Oil a covalent compound?? What happens when I mix those two? The iodine didn't dissolve completely but the solution turned a translucent purple.

We made varying concentrations of the two solutions.
We found out the absorbance at the maximum wavelengths of each concentration through a UV Vis and we double checked for accuracy in a Spec 20. That also gave us the transmittance of the solution.

Now I'm having trouble explaining what I did and what goes on, on a molecular level. Much help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[gkasparis]

what is the beer-lambert law? ( i know what it is just since the forum uses the socratic method..)

[Arkcon]

So...

Buttons.

I did this experiment where I made two solutions, one of copper sulfate, one of iodine and mineral oil. 1. Is Iodine and Mineral Oil a covalent compound??

Can you define covalent compound, and see if the formulas for those substances match.  Mineral oil is a little hard to know, but it is out there, if you look.

What happens when I mix those two? The iodine didn't dissolve completely but the solution turned a translucent purple.

You're the one who did it, you tell us.  I can see you have, so I would work with that as completely as you can.

We made varying concentrations of the two solutions.
We found out the absorbance at the maximum wavelengths of each concentration through a UV Vis and we double checked for accuracy in a Spec 20. That also gave us the transmittance of the solution.

Good.  You now have some data to work with in some regard.

Now I'm having trouble explaining what I did and what goes on, ...

That can be hard to do, but you can pull some good conclusions together from what you've seen, and what you can look up.  However, ...

on a molecular level.

OK.  See, no one responsible, who understands chemistry, talks like that.  That's not part of the chemistry assignment. That's something a person who's very new to chemistry asks.  Although chemists model reactions -- that is, describe things -- as happening on an atomic or molecular level, we never actually do that.  You're the second person lately to want things described that way, and I'd wish people would stop.  Seriously, that's like, "Wadda ya mean, dinosaurs and cavemen weren't together, I saw it on the Flintstones."

Much help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Keep on, keepin' on.  You'll get it together.

[Jasim]

Beer Lambert basically says that stuff in solution absorbs light based on a mathematical function. In the most simple of terms, clear solutions like plain water don't absorb much light while a colored or opaque (cloudy) solution absorbs more light. Analytical chemists use this idea all the time to determine what substances are present in a sample and how much of specific substances is in there (e.g. if you have more iodine in a solution, then the solution will be darker in color, meaning it will transmit less light or absorb more light).

You just mixed stuff together, no covalent bonds were formed. Actually explaining what occurs on a molecular level requires some pretty complicated quantum mechanics. As Arkcon said, we chemists don't typically discuss such complicated things.