Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

How to compute the amount of dissolved drug present in a solution? Present litarature uses UV spectrophotometer but it isn’t readily available in our school. I need to find a different way on knowing. For instance, I have a 50 ml solution with ibuprofen dissolved in it. Then I submerge hydrogels in the solution. Of course, the hydrogels would absorb water and also the drug present in the solution. Now I need to know how much for the drug is left in the solution. Does anyone have any suggested method or computation? I badly need this. Thank you.

If you want to measure specific drug concentrations, I'm afraid you need some very expensive and complicated instruments. I would suggest you use some other chemical as a stand-in like a dye or food coloring which might be absorbed by your hydrogel. Color changes in solution are easy to see and photograph; although you would still need a spectrophotometer to make quantitative measurements.

If you need more information, please post again.

Sybee