Hemoglobin Lab Report

Abstract: Hemoglobin is an iron-containing protein in red blood cells that enable the red blood cell to bind oxygen in the lung and transport the oxygen to tissues and organs throughout the body. Oxygen binds reversibly to these iron atoms and is carried throughout the blood. As part of the experiment, we computed the concentration of hemoglobin and iron in a crystalline blood sample by measuring the absorbance of the sample as methemoglobin and cynamethemoglobin at 450-650nm. Furthermore, the hemoglobin and iron concentration were also measured by means of volumetric analysis and the Wong method. The concentration of Hemoglobin and iron obtained in the experiment was in good agreement with their corresponding literature value. The computation for the error analysis suggests that the error in the concentration with respect to the absorbance contributed highly to the result, because without it, the concentration of hemoglobin and iron in the blood sample will …show more content…
In this report, a crystalline blood sample was added to a concentrated sulfuric acid in order to lyse red blood cells. The lysing or the destruction of the red blood cells frees the iron-containing hemoglobin. Since the hemoglobin consist of 0.34% iron3,4,5, the determination of iron in the sample is also the determination of hemoglobin in the sample3,4,5. The iron in the blood is oxidized to its Fe3+ state, and the hemoglobin proteins were precipitated from the mixture. Addition of potassium thiocyanate (KSCN) solution to the protein-free filtrate produces a red ferric thiocyanate (FeSCN2+) ion3. Light absorbance of the FeSCN2+ was obtained, and use to calculate the concentration of iron using the Beer-Lambert law, which is then used to compute the hemoglobin concentration in the original