MEAUREMENT OF REFRACTIVE INDEX OF OIL USING

HOLLOW PRISM; QUALITY ANALYSIS.

A PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

Mr TAJANPURE NINAD RAMESH

In partial fulfilment for the award of the degree

Of

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE

In

PHYSICS

HPT ARTS & RYK SCIENCE COLLEGE OF NASHIK 422 005.

SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY, PUNE 411 007.

MARCH-2020
 Examination seat no.

SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY, PUNE- 411007

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this project report “MEAUREMENT OF REFRACTIVE INDEX OF

OIL USING HOLLOW PRISM; QUALITY ANALYSIS.” is the Bonafide work of

“TAJANPURE NINAD RAMESH” of T. Y. B.Sc. (physics) during the academic

year 2019-20 who carried out the project work under my supervision.

PROF. U. G. MHASKE Dr. M.D. DESHPANDE

PROJECT GUIDE HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT
HPT ARTS & RYK SCIENCE HPT ARTS & RYK SCIENCE
COLLEGE, NASHIK-422005 COLLEGE ,NASHIK-422005

Date: 05 /03/2020

Internal Examiner External Examiner

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to thank the Principal V. N. SURYAVANSHI of my college for permitting me to use

all the facilities available in the institution for my project work. I would also like to thank the

Head of the Physics Department Dr. M. D. DESHPANDE, the teaching faculty and all the

non-teaching staff of my college for their support in completing the work successfully.

I am grateful to my Guide U.G. MHASKE for her encouragement, guidance and supervision

of my project work during the year. My classmates have been of great help to me during the

project work. My ideas were shaped and refined progressively through my discussion with

them from time to time. I cannot miss to thank them all. There were some persons like lab

assistant who were not directly but indirectly involved in my preparatory/practical work. I

heartily appreciate their contribution and thank them too.

Date: 05/03/2020 TAJANPURE NINAD RAMESH

T. Y. B.Sc.(Physics)
Year: 2019-20
 INDEX

SR NO. TOPIC SUBTOPIC

1 Chapter 1  INTRODUCTION
 SIGNAFICANCE
OF REFRACTIVE
INDEX
 DEFINITION
 FACTORS
AFFECTING
REFRACTIVE
INDEX OF
MATERIAL
 APPLICATION OF
REFRACTIVE
INDEX

2 Chapter 2  EXPERIMENTAL
TECHNIQUES TO
DETERMINE THE
REFRACTIVE
INDEX OF LIQUID
 Experimental
Procedure

3 Chapter 3  Calculations and

discussion:
 Observation tables

4 Chapter 4  Result and conclusion.

5 Chapter 5  Reference.
CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
 SIGNAFICANCE OF REFRACTIVE INDEX
 DEFINITION
 FACTORS AFFECTING REFRACTIVE INDEX OF
MATERIAL
 APPLICATION OF REFRACTIVE INDEX
Modern refractive index measuring systems meet specific requirements that enable long-term
and care-free real-time substance identification and determination of critical factors, such as
the concentration and purity of solutions, over the whole production process. They fulfill the
five most important requirements for process control and monitoring, as well as latest
maintenance and hygienic demands. Refractive Index is a value commonly used in optical
science. It has no unit and gives an indication of a materials ability to refract light. To
understand the concept of Refractive index it is important to understand the concepts of
refraction.

In optics, the refractive index of a material is a dimensionless number that describes how
fast light travels through the material .In optical microscopy, refractive index is an important
variable in calculating numerical aperture, which is a measure of the light-gathering and
resolving power of an objective. In most instances, the imaging medium for microscopy is
air, but high-magnification objectives often employ oil or a similar liquid between the
objective front lens and the specimen to improve resolution. In fluids such as drinks or foods,
the refractive index is a measure of dissolved or submicronic particles
As the refractive index of a material increases, the greater the extent to which a light beam is
deflected (or refracted) upon entering or leaving the material. The refractive index of a
medium is dependent (to some extent) upon the frequency of light passing through, with the
highest frequencies having the highest values of n. For example, in ordinary glass the
refractive index for violet light is about one percent greater than that for red light. A
consequence of this phenomenon is that each wavelength experiences a slightly different
degree of refraction when a heterogeneous light beam containing more than one frequency
enters or leaves the medium. This effect is termed dispersion and is responsible for chromatic
aberration in microscope objectives.

SIGNIFICANCE OF REFRACIVE INDEX:

Refractive indices have many purposes and are used most frequently to differentiate between
liquid samples. Therefore, this physical quantity characterizes liquids in the same way that
melting points are used to characterize solids. This measurement can serve as a means of
identification of a substance by comparing its refractive index to known literature values.
Furthermore, refractive indices can be used to as an estimate of the purity of a compound by
comparing the substance’s refractive index to that of the pure compound.
In addition, refractive indices are also used to determine the concentration of a solute in a
solution by comparing the solution’s refractive index to a standard curve. Finally, refractive
indices are influenced by the polarizability of a medium. The more polarizable the material,
the higher the refractive index is for the substance. Thus, knowledge of the refractive index of
a substance is also necessary to calculate dipole moments of that substance. The molar
refractions, R, can be calculated and are characteristic of that substance and indicative of its
structure.

DEFINITIO
N

1)The ratio of the velocity of light(c)in a vacuum to its velocity(v) in a specified medium

where c is the speed of light in vacuum and v is the phase velocity of light in the medium

2) Refractive index, also called index of refraction, measure of the bending of a ray of light
when passing from one medium into another.
3) . Snell's law was originally defined by the relationship between the incident angles and the
ratio of the velocities of light in the two media.

Factors affecting refractive index of material:

a) Speed of light:

Refractive index measurement is actually a measurement of the speed of light in a medium.

The
speed of light (usually denoted by c) is 299 792 458 m/s in vacuum. In other media the speed
of
light is lower than this value, and the refractive index, R.I., of a medium is a measure of how
much the speed of light is reduced in the medium.

b) Temperature
Refractive index values are usually determined at standard temperature. A higher
temperature means the liquid becomes less dense and less viscous, causing light to
travel faster in the medium. This results in a smaller value for the refractive index due
to a smaller ratio. Since refractive indices vary with temperature, for each degree
Celsius of temperature change, the average temperature correction has been found to
be 0.00045 units for a wide range of compounds.
Ex. If the reading for the refractive index was 1.4370 at 18ºC, it would be corrected to
1.4370- 0.0009 = 1.4361 at 20ºC.
Many refractometers have a thermometer and a means of circulating water to maintain
a specific temperature.
 c) Optical density:

Optical density determines how much a light wave is slowed down as it passes through a
medium. The more optically dense a material is, the slower that a wave will move through the
material. The refractive index is a measurement of optical density.

d) Wavelength of light:
The refractive index varies with wavelength linearly because different wavelengths
interfere to different extents with the atoms of the medium. It is important to use
monochromatic light to prevent dispersion of light into different colours. The chosen
wavelength should not be absorbed by the medium. The sodium D line at 598 nm is
the most frequently used wavelength of light for a refractometer.

APPLICATION OF REFRACTIVE INDEX:

• The refractive index of a material medium is an important optical parameter since it exhibits
the optical properties of the material.
• Its values are often required to interpret various types of spectroscopic data. Such as DOAS,
ES, EPF IRAS PWMS.
• It is used to calculate the focusing power of lenses, and the dispersive power of prisms. The
refractive index coefficients are important parameters in the design of a solid state laser. The
adulteration problem is increasing day by day and hence simple, automatic and accurate
measurement of the refractive index of materials is of great importance these days.
• Refractive Index (RI) Detector is designed for high-performance liquid chromatography
(HPLC) applications. It provides sensitivity, stability, and reproducibility for the analysis of
components with limited or no UV absorption
• Various methods and techniques for the measurement of refractive indices of liquids, solids
and gases. Sensitive determination of the refractive indices of certain materials is very
important in many fields of research such as material analysis and environmental pollution
monitoring.
• Refractometric measurements are used for qualitative analysis for different type of
packaging material like glass, plastics, rubber, silk etc.
•It is used in the examination of organic compounds
• It is used in the examination of organic compounds (oils, solvents, etc.), solutions, food
products, serum protein concentration.
• In veterinary medicine, a refractometer is used to measure the total plasma protein in a
blood sample and urine specific gravity.
• In gemmology. a refractometer in used to help identify gem materials by measuring their
refractive index
• Since the index of refraction of a pure substance is constant at constant temperature and
pressure. it can he used as a means of identification
• It is used to determine the purity of oils fats, and waxes.
• it is used to determine the amount of sugar in sugar solutions and in general.
ORIENTATION OF FUTURE WORK:
Each food materials we use daily have a decent value of consumption by default.
Determination of this standard value serves as a prevention of the abuse of use bringing about
the bad impact on the health of costumers. There are two kinds of edible oil including animal
oil and vegetable oil and it already has a decent value of consumption. physical and chemical
parameters are used to determine the quality of cooking oil, such as chemical composition,
viscosity, conductivity, reflectivity and refractive index. Normally along with other
properties, Therefore, several instruments have been developed based on those parameters for
determining the quality of vegetable oil such as refractometer, interferometer and Ostwald
viscometer. Cooking plays an important role in healthcare of body oil of sufficient amount of
fats vitamins cholesterol plays an important role in mechanism of body but if the oil which
we were youth is not of the good quality it will may cause heart problems, different diseases
which may cause early death. So I have selected to check the purity of oil according to
standard of ‘World Health Organisation’ in the selection of oil which were analysed is of the
soya seeds of different company. From the available data we will compare, analyse and also
find that which oil is best for daily purpose.
CHAPTER II

 EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES TO DETERMINE THE

REFRACTIVE INDEX OF LIQUID
 Experimental Procedure
EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES TO DETERMINE THE REFRACTIVE
INDEX OF LIQUID

1)Liquid Refractive Index Measurement System Based on

Electrowetting Lens:
The system is composed of a light source, a collimating lens, a liquid measurement
chamber (LMC), an electro wetting lens and an image sensor, which is integrated into a
cylindrical cavity

. The refractive index of the LMC changes with the addition of the measured liquid, and the
incident light cannot be focused on the image plane. By adjusting the driving voltage of the
electro wetting lens, the curvature of the liquid-liquid interface changes to focus the incident
light onto the image plane. The refractive index of the liquid could be measured according to
the voltage value. The proposed LRI measurement system has no mechanical moving parts,
and the imaging surface remains stationary, which can make the measurement simply and
correctly

2) Liquid REFRACTIVEINDEX MEASUREMENT USING

LIQUID LENS METHOD:
A watch‐glass serves to give the liquid the form of a Plano‐convex lens. The image of the
maker's trademark on an incandescent lamp is focussed by means of the liquid lens on a
movable screen. The screen is supported on an optical bench mounted vertically. By using the
image equation, 1/a+1/b=(n−1)(1/R), the refractive index, n, may be determined. A Wallace
type G colour filter is employed to give results comparable with the values of n determined
with Na light.

3) REFRACTIVE INDEX BY NEWTONS RING

In an experimental arrangement, the glass plate is inclined at an angle 45° to the horizontal.
One or two drops og the given liquid is placed between the glass plate and lens.

This glass plate reflects light from the source vertically downloads and falls normally on the
convex lens. Newton's rings are seen using a long focus microscope .
Above is the formula to calculate refractive index of liquid.

4) Refractive index using hollow glass slab:

When a light ray travels from air to hollow glass slab, the angle of incidence is
greater than angle of refraction as ray bends towards normal. When a light ray
travels from hollow glass to air, the angle of refraction (also called angle of emergent
in case of glass) is greater than the angle of incidence of hollow glass slab-air
interface as ray of light bends away from the normal. If the angle of incidence is zero,
i.e. the incident ray is normal to the interface, the ray of light continues to travel in the
same direction after refraction.

The angle of emergence and angle of incidence will be equal.

Emergent ray is parallel to the incident ray along with original direction but it will be
laterally displaced to the left of the incident ray. For the same angle of incidence,
lateral displacement is proportional to the thickness of the hollow glass slab. For the
same thickness of glass slab, the lateral displacement is proportional to the angle of
incidence.

5) Refractive index using hollow prism:

In optics, a prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light.
The exact angles between the surfaces depend on the application. The traditional geometrical
shape is that of a triangular prism with a triangular base and rectangular sides, and in
colloquial use "prism" usually refers to this type

. Some types of optical prism are not in fact in the shape of geometric prisms. Prisms can be
made from any material that is transparent to the wavelengths for which they are designed.
Typical materials include glass, plastic and fluorite

.
Formula to calculate refractive index

6) Differential refractometer:
A differential refractometer (DRI), or refractive index detector (RI or RID) is a detector that
measures the refractive index of an analyses relative to the solvent. They are often used as
detectors for high-performance liquid chromatography and size exclusion chromatography.
They are considered to be universal detectors because they can detect anything with a
refractive index different from the solvent, but they have low sensitivity.
This are the methods to calculate the refractive index of different liquids. Here for a quality
analysis, the hollow prism has been selected to calculate refractive index. Hollow prism is
consisting of hollow transparent material shape like three dimensional equilateral triangles.
The hollow prism is filled with different liquids and then it acts like a biprism material. And
also it is cheapest method to calculate refractive index of liquid.
In a hollow prism method, Liquid is contained in a hollow prism cell. Measurement of the
deviation angle of the refracted transmitted beam allows very accurate determination of the
fluid refractive index. The main components of the simple refractometer is a hollow prism as
sample cavity and a sodium diode laser as a light source. A hollow prism is a prism made
using glass plate with the centre part of the prism is vacant. This cavity can be filled with gas
or other fluids. Thus, a hollow prism is also commonly called as a fluid prism. This prism is a
well-known tool used for determination refractive index of fluid and normally made from a
high quality glass for obtaining highly accurate estimation. The estimation of the refractive
index of any fluid sample using the fluid prism based on the refraction of the passed light
beam by the fluid sample. The measurement of refractive index is carried out by measuring
the minimum deviation angle (dm) of the light beam passed through the prism and the apex
angle(A) of the prism as express in the following equation

Where;
n: refractive index of the fluid sample
dm: minimum deviation angle of the light beam after passing through the prism,
A: apex angle of the prism

a hollow prism was made from an ordinary commercial glass easily available in market at
very low cost. The constructed prism was used to make simple, cheap refractometer for
determining quickly the quality of the edible oil. the thickness of the ordinary commercial
glass plate used for constructing the hollow prism was 5 mm and the apex angle of the
constructed hollow prism was 60˙. As the results, the simple refractometer can be used to
measure the refractive index of edible oil with relatively high accuracy, namely the refractive
index of the new branded, packed oil sample. However, several physical parameters of the
prism influence significantly the refractive index. This present work is intended to study in
greater detail the influence of the apex angle of the hollow prism to the measurement
accuracy of the refractive index. Changing the apex angle to find the optimal apex angle of a
hollow prism that allows for the highest accuracy of the refractive index measurement of the
oil sample.

Experimental Procedure

The tool used in this work are a hollow prism and a green Na laser (λ = 589 nm,
***mW). The hollow prism constructed from the ordinary commercial glass plate
normally with apex angles of 60˙. The thickness of the ordinary commercial glass
plate is 2 mm. The dimension of each constructed prism is different depending on the
intended apex angle. A design of the hollow prism for an apex angle (A) of 60˙. The
dimension of both sides of the prism is 3.2X3.3cm.

The edible soyabean oil sample used in this study is of four companies mainly Laxmi,
Murali, star555, Fortune and all are refined soyabean oil. For measuring the refractive
index, the Na laser light beam was passed through the hollow prism before and after
the cavity of the hollow prism is filled with the oil sample. The deviation angle of the
Na laser beam is then measured as shown in Figure
CHAPTER III

 Calculations and discussion:

 Observation tables
calculations and discussion:
The hollow prism with different apex angles of 60 degree has been designed and constructed
from an ordinary commercial glass plate with a thickness of 2 mm. The photographs of the
hollow prisms with different apex angles and the laser Na were used as a simple
refractometer for measuring the refractive index of edible oil sample. Table 2 shows the
refractive index of the soyabean oil sample measured using the hollow prisms, each
measurement has been repeated four times for accuracy. To estimate the measurement
accuracy, the refractive index of the water was also measured using a hollow prism and found
that the refractive index of water is 1.33099. Table 1 shows the c as shown follow,
TABLE 1: The refractive index of water.
SAMPLE ANGLE OF DEVIATION REFRACTIVE INDEX
DISTILLED WATER 23.44 1.330999

And the standard value of refractive index of distilled water 1.33.

The refractive index measured by using the simple refractometer is then compared to the
refractive index measured using the standard differential refractometer. the closest value to
the reference value of the refractive index and it deviates only 0.25% from the refractive
index value measured using the standard differential refractometer. The deviation is
expressed in percentage by comparing the measurement results obtained by using the hollow
prism to that of using the standard differential refractometer. The reference value of the
refractive index of the oil sample is the refractive index value measured by using the standard
differential refractometer.
TABLE 2: The refractive index of soybean oil sample

sr no company name sample angle of refractive

deviation index

A LABH LAXMI A1 35˙29' 1.48024

(REFINED
SOYABEAN OIL)
A2 35˙31'33'' 1.48072
A3 35˙30'30'' 1.48053
A4 35˙22'36'' 1.47988
MEAN 1.48034

B MURALI(REFINE B1 35˙32'30'' 1.48092

D SOYABEAN
OIL)
B2 34˙59' 1.47435
B3 34˙29' 1.46844
B4 34˙23' 1.46726
MEAN 1.4727425

C STAR555(REFINE C1 34˙40'30'' 1.47071

D SOYABEAN
OIL)
C2 34˙51' 1.47278
C3 34˙43'30'' 1.47131
C4 34˙29'30'' 1.46854
MEAN 1.470835

D FORTUNE D1 34˙58' 1.47425

(REFINED
SOYABEAN OIL)
D2 35˙52' 1.48473
D3 34˙4' 1.46351
D4 34˙42' 1.471
1.4733725

TABLE 3:
The detail analysis of the given sample of soybean oil of different company is as follow:
SAMPL REFRACTIV NUTRITIONAL FACTS (APPROXIMATE COMPOSITION PER 100 g)
E NO E INDEX

ENERGY(kcal CARBOHYDRATE SATURATE MONO - POLYUNSTURATE

) S D FATTY UNSATURATE D FATTY ACID
(gm) ACID D FATTY ACID (gm)
(gm) (gm)
A 1.48034 884 0 14.4 23.3 57.9

B 1.4727425 900 0 16 24 60

C 1.470835 900 0 16 24 55

D 1.4733725 900 0 21 17 53

And the standard value of a above parameters is as given as follow from which the refractive
index of oil is measured using differential refractometer, and the nutritional fact is the
internationally provided by world heal organisation (WHO).
SAMPL REFRACTIV NUTRITIONAL FACTS (APPROXIMATE COMPOSITION PER 100 g)
E NO E INDEX

ENERGY(kca CARBOHYDRAT SATURATE MONO - POLYUNSTURATE

l) ES D FATTY UNSATURATE D FATTY ACID
(gm) ACID D FATTY (gm)
(gm) ACID (gm)
1 1.47430 - - 16 23 58

Refractive index of oil

Increasing the degree of unsaturation increases the refractive index and when the length of
the chain increases, the refractive index also increases. The amount of fatty acids present a
given amount oil is affect the refractive index of oil, this are the main ingredient of oil which
is responcible for the present refractive index of oil. The soyabean oil contains the saturated
fatty acid, mono-unsaturated fatty acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid etc.
CHAPTER IV

 Result and conclusion.

Result and conclusion:
The hollow prism made from the ordinary commercial glass plate and the Na laser as a light
source can be used for measuring the refractive index of the soyabean oil samples packed
oil samples. The accuracy of the refractive index measurement using the hollow prism for
the oil samples was also confirmed using the distilled water sample. Comparing the
measurement results obtained using the hollow prism for the four samples LABH LAXMI
(REFINED SOYABEAN OIL), MURALI(REFINED SOYABEAN OIL), STAR555(REFINED SOYABEAN
OIL), FORTUNE (REFINED SOYABEAN OIL) to the results obtained by means of the standard
Abbe refractometer confirms that the accuracy of the refractive index measurement using
the hollow prims made from the ordinary glass plate is relatively high.
From the given refractive index it is clear that the FORTUNE (REFINED SOYABEAN OIL) is of
the better quality oil than rest of the given samples. It is clear that from refractive index by
hollow prism experiment we can find out the refractive index and from the data analysis it is
the simple method to check the quality of oil.
Chapter v

 Reference
REFERENCE:
 A Practical Guide to Experimental Geometrical Optics
o -Anatoliy V. Glushchenko
o
 An Introduction to Practical Laboratory Optics

- J. F. James

 www.wikipedia.org
 Introduction to Optics 3rd Edition
- Frank L. Pedrotti, Leno M. Pedrotti, Leno S. Pedrotti