What was the purpose of putting distilled water in the blank cuvette? if your unknown used ethanol as the base solvent, what would the blank consist of?

The purpose of using distilled water in the cuvette of the spectrophotometer is to calibrate the instrument. It is generally considered that distilled water shows zero absorbance and 100 % transmittance. So, to zero out the absorbance of compounds other than the analyte being determined, distilled water is used as a blank.

If the unknown being determined is prepared using ethanol as the base solution, the blank used must be ethanol. This is because absorbance if any from the solvent, ethanol must be zeroed out as when the measurement of the actual unknown is being made, the absorbance of the solvent does not interfere.

answer: - 3.) the oxidation state of nitrogen in no changes from +2 to 0, and the oxidation state of carbon in co changes from +2 to +4 as the reaction proceeds.

solution: - as per the rules, oxidation number of oxygen in its compounds is -2. the sum of oxidation numbers of all the elements of a molecule or compound is zero.

also, the oxidation number in elemental form is zero.

in no, the oxidation number of o is -2 so the oxidation number of n is +2 so that the sum is zero.

similarly, the oxidation number of c in co is +2 and o is -2.

on product side the oxidation number of n is 0 as it is in the elemental form() .

oxidation number of c in carbon dioxide is +4 as there are two oxygen in it and we know that each oxygen is -2.

so, oxidation number of n is changing from +2 to 0 and the oxidation number of c is changing from +2 to +4.

since nitrogen is reduced and hence no is acting as an oxidizing agent. carbon is oxidized and so co is acting as a reducing agent.

so, the right choice is number 3.)the oxidation state of nitrogen in no changes from +2 to 0, and the oxidation state of carbon in co changes from +2 to +4 as the reaction proceeds.