Absorption Methods

Two widely used terms in absorption spectrometry are:

i)Transmittance ii)Absorbance
-These terms are related to the ratio of power of incident beam of radiation(P
o
) & transmitted beam of
radiation(P).
i)Transmittance(T):
-A beam of parellel radiation having power of P
o
is passed through a medium having a thickness of b cm & a
concentration c of an absorbing species.
-Interaction takes place between the photons & absorbing atoms or molecules.
-As a consequence, the power beam is weaken from P
o
to P
-Hence , the transmittance(T) is the fraction of radiation transmitted by the medium:
T= P/ P
o
Expression of transmittance in percentage:
%T = P/P
o
X 100%

ii)Absorbance(A):

A = -log
10
T = log log P
o
/P

-With the decrease in transmittance, absorbance of the medium increases.
Beers Law (Beer-Lamberts Law):

For a monochromatic radiation, absorbance is directly proportional to the path length(b) through the
concentration (c) of the absorbing species.

A= abc -------(i)

Where,
a is a proportionality constant called absorptivity.
its magnitude depends upon the units used for b & c.
-When c is in moles per liter & b is in centimeters, then then the absorptivity(a) is called molar
absorptivity ( , epsilon)

-Then the equation i) becomes:
A = bc ---------(ii)
has a unit of L mol
-1
cm
-1
.
-Beers law is the basis for quantitative analysis.
-It is used in both atomic & molecular absorption measurements.