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Absorption spectroscopy

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Absorption spectroscopy refers to spectroscopic techniques that measure the absorption


of radiation, as a function of frequency or wavelength, due to its interaction with a
sample. The sample absorbs energy, i.e., photons, from the radiating field. The intensity
of the absorption varies as a function of frequency, and this variation is the absorption
spectrum. Absorption spectroscopy is performed across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Absorption spectroscopy is employed as an analytical chemistry tool to determine the


presence of a particular substance in a sample and, in many cases, to quantify the amount
of the substance present. Infrared and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy are particularly
common in analytical applications. Absorption spectroscopy is also employed in studies
of molecular and atomic physics, astronomical spectroscopy and remote sensing.

There are a wide range of experimental approaches to measuring absorption spectra. The
most common arrangement is to direct a generated beam of radiation at a sample and
detect the intensity of the radiation that passes through it. The transmitted energy can be
used to calculate the absorption. The source, sample arrangement and detection technique
vary significantly depending on the frequency range and the purpose of the experiment.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Basic Theory
o 1.1 Relation To Emission Spectroscopy
o 1.2 Relation To Scattering and Reflection Spectroscopy
• 2 Applications
o 2.1 Analytical Chemistry
o 2.2 Remote Sensing
o 2.3 Astronomy
o 2.4 Atomic and Molecular Physics
• 3 Experimental Methods
o 3.1 Basic Approach
o 3.2 Specific Approaches
• 4 References

• 5 See also

[edit] Basic Theory


More technically,[1][2] absorption spectroscopy is based on the absorption of photons by
one or more substances present in a sample, which can be a solid, liquid, or gas, and
subsequent promotion of electron(s) from one energy level to another in that substance.
Note that the sample can be a pure, homogeneous substance or a complex mixture. The
frequency at which the incident photon is absorbed is determined by the difference in the
available energy levels of the different substances present in the sample; it is the
selectivity of absorbance spectroscopy - the ability to generate photon (light) sources that
are absorbed by only some of the components in a sample - that gives absorbance
spectroscopy much of its utility. Typically, X-rays are used to reveal chemical
composition, and near ultraviolet to near infrared wavelengths are used to distinguish the
configurations of various isomers in detail. In absorption spectroscopy the absorbed
photons are not re-emitted (as in fluorescence) rather, the energy that is transferred to the
chemical compound upon absorbance of a photon is lost by non-radiative means, such as
transfer of energy as heat to other molecules.

While the relative intensity of the absorption lines do not vary with concentration, at any
given frequency the measured absorbance ( − log(I / I0)) has been shown to be
proportional to the molar concentration of the absorbing species and the thickness of the
sample the light passes through. This is known as the Beer-Lambert law. The plot of
amount of radiation absorbed versus frequency for a particular compound is referred to as
the absorption spectrum. The normalized absorption spectrum is characteristic for a
particular compound, does not change with varying concentration and is like the chemical
"fingerprint" of the compound. At frequencies corresponding to the resonant energy
levels of the sample, some of the incident photons are absorbed, resulting in a drop in the
measured transmission intensity and a corresponding dip in the spectrum. The absorption
spectrum can be measured using a spectrometer and by knowing the shape of the
spectrum ,the optical path length and the amount of radiation absorbed, one can
determine the structure and concentration of the compound.

[edit] Relation To Emission Spectroscopy

Emission is a process by which a substance releases energy in the form of


electromagnetic radiation. Emission can occur at any frequency at which absorption can
occur, and this allows the absorption lines to be determined from an emission spectrum.
The emission spectrum will typically have a quite different intensity pattern from the
absorption spectrum, though, so the two are not equivalent. The absorption spectrum can
be calculated from the emission spectrum using appropriate theoretical models and
additional information about the quantum mechanical states of the substance.

[edit] Relation To Scattering and Reflection Spectroscopy

The scattering and reflection spectra of a material are influenced by both its index of
refraction and its absorption spectrum. In an optical context, the absorption spectrum is
typically quantified by the extinction coefficient, and the extinction and index
coefficients are quantitatively related through the Kramers-Kronig relation. Therefore,
the absorption spectrum can be derived from a scattering or reflection spectrum. This
typically requires simplifying assumptions or models, and so the derived absorption
spectrum is an approximation.

[edit] Applications
[edit] Analytical Chemistry

Absorption spectroscopy is useful in chemical analysis because of its specificity and its
quantitative nature. The specificity of absorption spectra allows compounds to be
distinguished from one another in a mixture. For example, absorption spectroscopy is
used to identify the presence of pollutants in the air, distinguishing the pollutant from the
nitrogen, oxygen, water and the other expected constituents.[3] The specificity also allows
unknown samples to be identified by comparing a measured spectrum with a library of
reference spectra. In many cases, it is possible to determine qualitative information about
a sample even if it is not in a library. Infrared spectra, for instance, have characteristics
absorption bands that indicate if carbon-hydrogen or carbon-oxygen bonds are present.

An absorption spectrum can be quantitatively related to the amount of material present


using the Beer-Lambert law. Determining the absolute concentration of a compound
requires knowledge of the compound's absorption coefficient. The absorption coefficient
for some compounds is available from reference sources, and it can also be determined
by measuring the spectrum of a calibration standard with a known concentration of the
target.

[edit] Remote Sensing

One of the unique advantages of spectroscopy as an analytical technique is that


measurements can be made without bringing the instrument and sample into contact.
Radiation that travels between a sample and an instrument will contain the spectral
information, so the measurement can be made remotely. Remote spectral sensing is
valuable in many situations. For example, measurements can be made in toxic or
hazardous environments without placing an operator or instrument at risk. Also, sample
material does not have to be brought into contact with the instrument--preventing
possible cross contamination.

Remote spectral measurements present several challenges compared to laboratory


measurements. The space in between the sample of interest and the instrument may also
have spectral absorptions. These absorptions can mask or confound the absorption
spectrum of the sample. These background interferences may also vary over time. The
source of radiation in remote measurements is often an environmental source, such as
sunlight or the thermal radiation from a warm object, and this makes it necessary to
distinguish spectral absorption from changes in the source spectrum.

[edit] Astronomy
Astronomical spectroscopy is a particularly significant type of remote spectral sensing. In
this case, the objects and samples of interest are so distant from earth that
electromagnetic radiation is the only means available to measure them. Astronomical
spectra contain both absorption and emission spectral information. Absorption
spectroscopy has been particularly important for understanding interstellar clouds and
determining that some of them contain molecules. Absorption spectroscopy is also
employed in the study of extrasolar planets. Detection of extrasolar planets by the transit
method also measures their absorption spectrum and allows for the determination of the
planet's atmospheric composition.

[edit] Atomic and Molecular Physics

Theoretical models, principally quantum mechanical models, allow for the absorption
spectra of atoms and molecules to be related to other physical properties such as
electronic structure, atomic or molecular mass, and molecular geometry. Therefore,
measurements of the absorption spectrum are used to determine these other properties.
Microwave spectroscopy, for example, allows for the determination of bond lengths and
angles with high precision.

In addition, spectral measurements can be used to determine the accuracy of theoretical


predictions. For example, the Lamb shift measured in the hydrogen atomic absorption
spectrum was not expected to exist at the time it was measured. Its discovery spurred and
guided the development of quantum electrodynamics, and measurements of the Lamb
shift are now used to determine the fine-structure constant.

[edit] Experimental Methods


[edit] Basic Approach

The most straight-forward approach to absorption spectroscopy is to generate radiation


with a source, measure a reference spectrum of that radiation with a detector and then re-
measure the sample spectrum after placing the material of interest in between the source
and detector. The two measured spectra can then be combined to determine the material's
absorption spectrum. The sample spectrum alone is not sufficient to determine the
absorption spectrum because it will be affected by the experimental conditions--the
spectrum of the source, the absorption spectra of other materials in between the source
and detector and the wavelength dependent characteristics of the detector. The reference
spectrum will be affected in the same way, though, by these experimental conditions and
therefore the combination yields the absorption spectrum of the material alone.

A wide variety of radiation sources are employed in order to cover the electromagnetic
spectrum. For spectroscopy, it is generally desirable for a source to cover a broad swath
of wavelengths in order to measure a broad region of the absorption spectrum. Some
sources inherently emit a broad spectrum. Examples of these include globars or other
black body sources in the infrared, mercury lamps in the visible and ultraviolet and x-ray
tubes. One recently developed, novel source of broad spectrum radiation is synchotron
radiation which covers all of these spectral regions. Other radiation sources generate a
narrow spectrum but the emission wavelength can be tuned to cover a spectral range.
Examples of these include klystrons in the microwave region and lasers across the
infrared, visible and ultraviolet region (though not all lasers have tunable wavelengths).

The detector employed to measure the radiation power will also depend on the
wavelength range of interest. Most detectors are sensitive to a fairly broad spectral range
and the sensor selected will often depend more on the sensitivity and noise requirements
of a given measurement. Examples of detectors common in spectroscopy include
heterodyne receivers in the microwave, bolometers in the millimeter-wave and infrared,
mercury cadmium telluride and other cooled semiconductor detectors in the infrared, and
photodiodes and photomultiplier tubes in the visible and ultraviolet.

If both the source and the detector cover a broad spectral region, then it is also necessary
to introduce a means of resolving the wavelength of the radiation in order to determine
the spectrum. Often a spectrograph is used to spatially separate the wavelengths of
radiation so that the power at each wavelength can be measured independently. It is also
common to employ interferometry to determine the wavelength. Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy is a widely used implementation of this technique.

Two other issues that must be considered in setting up an absorption spectroscopy


experiment include the optics used to direct the radiation and the means of holding or
containing the sample material. In both cases, it is important to select materials that have
relatively little absorption of their own in the wavelength range of interest. The
absorption of other materials could interfere with or mask the absorption from the
sample. For instance, in several wavelength ranges it is necessary to measure the sample
under vacuum or in a rare gas environment because gases in the atmosphere have
interfering absorption features.

[edit] Specific Approaches

• Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy (CRDS)


• Mossbauer spectroscopy
• Photoemission spectroscopy
• Reflectance spectroscopy
• Laser Absorption Spectrometry (LAS)
• Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS)
• X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS)
• X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES)
• Astronomical spectroscopy

[edit] References
1. ^ Modern Spectroscopy (Paperback) by J. Michael Hollas ISBN 0470844167
2. ^ Symmetry and Spectroscopy: An Introduction to Vibrational and Electronic
Spectroscopy (Paperback) by Daniel C. Harris, Michael D. Bertolucci ISBN
048666144X
3. ^ "Gaseous Pollutants - Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy".
http://www.epa.gov/apti/course422/ce4b4.html. Retrieved 2009-09-30.

[edit] See also


• Absorption (optics)
• Optical density
• Lyman-alpha forest
• Transparent materials
• Water absorption
• Fraunhofer lines
• Photoemission spectroscopy
• Spectrometer

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy"

Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from UV/Vis spectroscopy)


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Beckman DU640 UV/Vis spectrophotometer.

Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy or ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis or


UV/Vis) involves the spectroscopy of photons in the UV-visible region. This means it
uses light in the visible and adjacent (near ultraviolet (UV) and near infrared (NIR))
ranges. The absorption in the visible ranges directly affects the color of the chemicals
involved. In this region of the electromagnetic spectrum, molecules undergo electronic
transitions. This technique is complementary to fluorescence spectroscopy, in that
fluorescence deals with transitions from the excited state to the ground state, while
absorption measures transitions from the ground state to the excited state.[1]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Applications
• 2 Beer-Lambert law
o 2.1 Practical considerations
 2.1.1 Spectral bandwidth
 2.1.2 Wavelength error
 2.1.3 Stray light
 2.1.4 Absorption flattening
• 3 Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer
• 4 Ultraviolet-visible spectrum
• 5 See also
• 6 Notes

• 7 External links

[edit] Applications

An example of a UV-vis readout

UV/Vis spectroscopy is routinely used in the quantitative determination of solutions of


transition metal ions and highly conjugated organic compounds.

• Solutions of transition metal ions can be coloured (i.e., absorb visible light)
because d electrons within the metal atoms can be excited from one electronic
state to another. The colour of metal ion solutions is strongly affected by the
presence of other species, such as certain anions or ligands. For instance, the
colour of a dilute solution of copper sulfate is a very light blue; adding ammonia
intensifies the colour and changes the wavelength of maximum absorption (λmax).
• Organic compounds, especially those with a high degree of conjugation, also
absorb light in the UV or visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The
solvents for these determinations are often water for water soluble compounds, or
ethanol for organic-soluble compounds. (Organic solvents may have significant
UV absorption; not all solvents are suitable for use in UV spectroscopy. Ethanol
absorbs very weakly at most wavelengths.) Solvent polarity and pH can effect the
absorption spectrum of an organic compound. Tyrosine, for example, increases in
absorption maxima and molar extinction coefficient when pH increases from 6 to
13 or when solvent polarity decreases.
• While charge transfer complexes also give rise to colours, the colours are often
too intense to be used for quantitative measurement.

The Beer-Lambert law states that the absorbance of a solution is directly proportional to
the concentration of the absorbing species in the solution and the path length. Thus, for a
fixed path length, UV/VIS spectroscopy can be used to determine the concentration of the
absorber in a solution. It is necessary to know how quickly the absorbance changes with
concentration. This can be taken from references (tables of molar extinction coefficients),
or more accurately, determined from a calibration curve.

A UV/Vis spectrophotometer may be used as a detector for HPLC. The presence of an


analyte gives a response which can be assumed to be proportional to the concentration.
For accurate results, the instrument's response to the analyte in the unknown should be
compared with the response to a standard; this is very similar to the use of calibration
curves. The response (e.g., peak height) for a particular concentration is known as the
response factor.

[edit] Beer-Lambert law


Main article: Beer-Lambert law

The method is most often used in a quantitative way to determine concentrations of an


absorbing species in solution, using the Beer-Lambert law:

− ,

where A is the measured absorbance, I0 is the intensity of the incident light at a given
wavelength, I is the transmitted intensity, L the pathlength through the sample, and c the
concentration of the absorbing species. For each species and wavelength, ε is a constant
known as the molar absorptivity or extinction coefficient. This constant is a fundamental
molecular property in a given solvent, at a particular temperature and pressure, and has
units of 1 / M * cm or often AU / M * cm.
The absorbance and extinction ε are sometimes defined in terms of the natural logarithm
instead of the base-10 logarithm.

The Beer-Lambert Law is useful for characterizing many compounds but does not hold as
a universal relationship for the concentration and absorption of all substances. A 2nd
order polynomial relationship between absorption and concentration is sometimes
encountered for very large, complex molecules such as organic dyes (Xylenol Orange or
Neutral Red, for example).

[edit] Practical considerations

To actually make a valid measurement you must understand and be aware of the
limitations of the particular instrument being used. This is especially important when
making measurements using simple (and therefore relatively inexpensive) instruments,
where a user is more likely to encounter an instrumental limitation, or when making
measurements of materials that have not been well characterized yet.

The molar extinction coefficient, ε, is a function of the wavelength (that is, the color) of
the light used. For the Beer-Lambert relation above to hold in a particular case, the light
must be sufficiently monochromatic that the exctinction coefficient used is well defined.

There can also be limits imposed by the materials being measured, for instance if the
material is not a simple solution.

Notice that the Beer-Lambert law implies that changes in concentration and path length
should have equivalent effects. That is, for example, diluting a solution by a factor of 10
should have the same effect on absorbance as shortening the path length from the normal
10 mm to 1 mm. If cells of different path length are available, this is an alternative test to
simply plotting absorption versus concentration in order to judge the validity of a
measurement. Failure of such a test could indicate a concentration-dependent effect in the
sample, such as absorption flattening.

[edit] Spectral bandwidth

For instance, the spectral bandwidth of the instrument (as FWHM), the portion of the
spectrum selected for the measurement, must be much smaller than the width of the
absorbance curve of the sample, so that the exctintion coefficient does not change
significantly over the band. Some instruments allow selection of bandwidth. (The
tradeoff is that reducing the bandwidth reduces the energy passed to the detector and will
require a longer measurement time to achieve the same signal to noise ratio.)

[edit] Wavelength error

In liquids, the extinction coefficient usually changes slowly with wavelength. A peak of
the absorbance curve (a wavelength where the absorbance reaches a maximum) is where
the rate of change in absorbance with wavelength is smallest. Measurements are usually
made at a peak in order to minimize errors produced by errors in wavelength in the
instrument, that is errors due to having a different extinction coefficient than assumed.

[edit] Stray light

Another important factor is the purity of the light used. The most important factor
affecting this is the stray light level of the monochromator [2] . The detector used is
broadband, it responds to all the light that reaches it. If a significant amount of the light
passed through the sample contains wavelengths that have much lower extinction
coefficients than the nominal one, the instrument will report an incorrectly low
absorbance. Any instrument will reach a point where an increase in sample concentration
will not result in an increase in the reported absorbance, because the detector is simply
responding to the stray light. In practice the concentration of the sample or the optical
path length must be adjusted to place the unknown absorbance within a range that is valid
for the instrument. Sometimes an empirical calibration function is developed, using
known concentrations of the sample, to allow measurements into the region where the
instrument is becoming non-linear.

As a rough guide, an instrument with a single monochromator would typically have a


stray light level corresponding to about 3 AU, which would make measurements above
about 2 AU problematic. A more complex instrument with a double monochromator
would have a stray light level corresponding to about 6 AU, which would therefore allow
measuring a much wider absorbance range.

[edit] Absorption flattening

The nature of the material being measured is also important. Solutions that are not
homogeneous can show deviations from the Beer-Lambert law because of the
phenomenon of absorption flattening. This can happen, for instance, where the absorbing
substance is located within suspended particles. [3] The deviations will be most noticeable
under conditions of low concentration and high absorbance. The reference describes a
way to correct for this deviation.

[edit] Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer


See also: Spectrophotometry

The instrument used in ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy is called a UV/vis


spectrophotometer. It measures the intensity of light passing through a sample (I), and
compares it to the intensity of light before it passes through the sample (Io). The ratio I /
Io is called the transmittance, and is usually expressed as a percentage (%T). The
absorbance, A, is based on the transmittance:

A = − log(%T / 100%)
The basic parts of a spectrophotometer are a light source, a holder for the sample, a
diffraction grating or monochromator to separate the different wavelengths of light, and a
detector. The radiation source is often a Tungsten filament (300-2500 nm), a deuterium
arc lamp which is continuous over the ultraviolet region (190-400 nm), and more recently
light emitting diodes (LED) and Xenon Arc Lamps[4] for the visible wavelengths. The
detector is typically a photodiode or a CCD. Photodiodes are used with monochromators,
which filter the light so that only light of a single wavelength reaches the detector.
Diffraction gratings are used with CCDs, which collects light of different wavelengths on
different pixels.

Diagram of a single-beam UV/vis spectrophotometer.

A spectrophotometer can be either single beam or double beam. In a single beam


instrument (such as the Spectronic 20), all of the light passes through the sample cell. Io
must be measured by removing the sample. This was the earliest design, but is still in
common use in both teaching and industrial labs.

In a double-beam instrument, the light is split into two beams before it reaches the
sample. One beam is used as the reference; the other beam passes through the sample.
Some double-beam instruments have two detectors (photodiodes), and the sample and
reference beam are measured at the same time. In other instruments, the two beams pass
through a beam chopper, which blocks one beam at a time. The detector alternates
between measuring the sample beam and the reference beam.

Samples for UV/Vis spectrophotometry are most often liquids, although the absorbance
of gases and even of solids can also be measured. Samples are typically placed in a
transparent cell, known as a cuvette. Cuvettes are typically rectangular in shape,
commonly with an internal width of 1 cm. (This width becomes the path length, L, in the
Beer-Lambert law.) Test tubes can also be used as cuvettes in some instruments. The type
of sample container used must allow radiation to pass over the spectral region of interest.
The most widely applicable cuvettes are made of high quality fused silica or quartz glass
because these are transparent throughout the UV, visible and near infrared regions. Glass
and plastic cuvettes are also common, although glass and most plastics absorb in the UV,
which limits their usefulness to visible wavelengths.[5]

[edit] Ultraviolet-visible spectrum


An ultraviolet-visible spectrum is essentially a graph of light absorbance versus
wavelength in a range of ultraviolet or visible regions. Such a spectrum can often be
produced directly by a more sophisticated spectrophotometer, or the data can be collected
one wavelength at a time by simpler instruments. Wavelength is often represented by the
symbol λ. Similarly, for a given substance, a standard graph of the extinction coefficient
(ε) vs. wavelength (λ) may be made or used if one is already available. Such a standard
graph would be effectively "concentration-corrected" and thus independent of
concentration.

The Woodward-Fieser rules are a set of empirical observations which can be used to
predict λmax, the wavelength of the most intense UV/Vis absorption, for conjugated
organic compounds such as dienes and ketones.

The wavelengths of absorption peaks can be correlated with the types of bonds in a given
molecule and are valuable in determining the functional groups within a molecule.
UV/Vis absorption is not, however, a specific test for any given compound. The nature of
the solvent, the pH of the solution, temperature, high electrolyte concentrations, and the
presence of interfering substances can influence the absorption spectra of compounds, as
can variations in slit width (effective bandwidth) in the spectrophotometer.

[edit] See also


• Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy of stereoisomers
• Infrared spectroscopy is another common spectroscopic technique, usually used to
obtain free information about the structure of compounds.
• Fourier transform spectroscopy
• Near infrared spectroscopy
• Vibrational spectroscopy
• Rotational spectroscopy
• Applied spectroscopy

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