Determination Of Real Refractive Index Of Glycerin Solutions Using Prism Spectrometer

Abstract

In this research, the refractive index of glycerin solutions were determined using a prism spectrometer by measuring the angle of minimum deviation using laser light of different wavelengths. The solutions were prepared in volume fraction and the angles of minimum deviation for different standardized samples of glycerin solution were determined; the values of these angles were used to compute the refractive indices of samples by Snell’s law. The value of calculated refractive index of the glycerin solutions for 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% 90% &100% concentrations were found to be in the range of 1.3210 to 1.4392, 1.3433 to 1.4598 and 1.3233- 1.4498 for extra zenith glycerin and 1.3321 to 1.4502, 1.3611 to 1.4719 and 1.3383- 1.4602 for clere glycerin using Red diode, Green diode and He-Ne lasers light respectively. The experimental result shows that the value of refractive index of glycerin solutions were Increases linearly as the concentration of glycerin increases, Decreases linearly as the temperature increases with negative slope and exponentially decreases as the wavelength of light increases. Finally the real refractive index of extra zenith and clere glycerin were investigated and compared with refractive index reported by other researchers and they are in good agreement. In addition the refractive index of clere is more related to standard value of glycerin than that of the extra zenith.