Question

If we added a high concentration (which will permeabilize the phospholipid bilayer) of strong detergents to beet samples, would this result in high or low absorbance value at 460 nm? Explain.

Answer 1

Concentration is one of the factors that influence the absorbance of a solution. As the concentration of the solution increases, more energy is absorbed and the rate of absorbance increases. Therefore, the absorption is directly proportional to the concentration of the solution.

This relationship can be expressed by the Beer-Lambert’s law, which is commonly known as Beer's law. Beer’s law states, that the rate of absorbance of a light-absorbing solution or material is directly proportional to the concentration of the solution.

If we increase the original concentration of the solution, the absorbance increases and if we decrease or dilute the solution, the absorbance will decrease in direct proportion.

Concentration affects the absorbance similarly to path length. On increasing the concentration of the solution, the light will hit added number of molecules when it passed through the molecules. As the concentration goes up, the numbers of molecules increase in the sample solution, and more amount of light is blocked.

At high concentrations, the molecular interactions can take place that causes changes to the shape and position of absorption bands.