Indicators utilize color changes to visually represent concentrations of a chemical species and are typically utilized in alkali and acidic solutions. There are other instances when color changes can be observed, indicating an alternate chemical species. Using UV-visible spectroscopy, color shifts can be observed and evaluated with the addition of select alkali, alkali earth, and transition metals in periods four and five. Each metal was added in increasing molar equivalents and evaluated against bromocresol green, bromocresol purple, bromothymol blue, methyl red, methyl orange, phenol red, and chlorophenol red. Though some metals did not give rise to color shifts, others caused peak shifts or unique color changes not observed with the addition of acid or base. Metals that resulted in spectra shifts were further analyzed using Raman and NMR spectroscopy to further evaluate the nature of the metal-indicator binding.

Determining and evaluating interactions between colorimetric indicators and metal ions

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