Color Wavelength NM Violet Blue Cyan Green Yellow Orange Red
Color Wavelength NM Violet Blue Cyan Green Yellow Orange Red
BSMD 3Y1-5
Critical Thinking and laboratory activity:
1. Mention the visible colors of the spectrum and their corresponding wavelength ranges.
4pts
Wavelength
Color
(nm)
violet 380–450
blue 450–485
cyan 485–500
green 500–565
yellow 565–590
orange 590–625
red 625–700
2. What types of light waves are not visible to the naked eye? 2pts
Cosmic rays
Gamma rays
X-rays
Ultra-violet (UV)
Infrared
Transmittance (T) is the fraction of incident light which is transmitted. In other words, it's the
amount of light that “successfully” passes through the substance and comes out the other side
Absorbance (A) is the flip-side of transmittance and states how much of the light the sample
absorbed.
Absorbance
Transmittance
0 100%
1 10%
2 1%
3 0.1%
States that the concentration of a substance is directly proportional to the amount of the
light absorbed or inversely proportional to the logarithm of transmitted light.
When a monochromatic light passes through an absorbing medium, the amount of light
that is absorbed is directly proportional to the number of light absorbing molecules in that
medium or the concentration of substance in that medium.Unlike calorimeters, in
spectrophotometers the compounds can be measured at precise wavelengths.
The law states that the concentration of a chemical is directly proportional to the
absorbance of a solution. The relation may be used to determine the concentration of a
chemical species in a solution using a colorimeter or spectrophotometer. The relation is
most often used in UV-visible absorption spectroscopy.
Light Sources:
There are two light sources i.e. a tungsten lamp which generates visible light and a deu-
terium or hydrogen lamp which generates UV light. Deuterium lamp gives wider and
more intense light in UV region than a hydrogen lamp.
The light from the light source is known as polychromatic or heterochromatic, since it is
composed of wide range of wave lengths. The polychromatic light is reflected back using
a plane mirror which passes through an entrance slit, condensing lens and falls on to the
monochromator. Monochromator disperses the light and the desired wavelength is
focussed on the exit slit using the wavelength selector.
Monochromators:
These produce radiations of single wavelength. They are based either upon refraction by
a prism or by diffraction by a grating. For visible region, prisms are made up of glass and
for UV region, of quartz or silica.
A grating consists of ruled lines (almost 2000 lines per mm) on a transparent or re-
flecting base. Resolving power of a grating is directly proportional to the closeness of
these lines. Compared to prisms gratings are superior since they yield resolutions of the
spectrum for the entire range of wavelengths. Use of a double monochromator enhances
efficiency of monochromation where a selected part of the spectrum from the first grating
is further resolved by a second grating which results in a band width as low as 0.1 mm.
Entrance Slit
Entrance Slit – minimizes unwanted or stray light and prevents the entrance of scattered
light into the monochromator system
Exit Slit
Exit Slit – controls the width of light beam (bandpass; accurate <1/5 the natural
bandpass of the spectrophotometer)
Cuvettes:
Cuvettes are optically transparent cells made of glass / silica / plastic / quartz.
Plastic and glass cannot be used for light measurements in UV region since they absorb UV
light below 310 nm. Silica and quartz can be used for both UV and visible light measurements
since they do not absorb UV light. Since quartz absorbs light below 190 nm, cuvettes of lithium
fluoride can be used which transmits radiations down to 110 nm.
DETECTORS (Photodetectors)
electron tube amplifying a current that can convert transmitted energy into an equivalent
amount of electrical or photoelectric energy.
METER
simplest method of displaying output of the detection system. Also called read-out
device
Galvanometer/ammeter