Viking Spectrophotometer : A Home-Built, Simple, and Cost-Efficient Absorption and Fluorescence Spectrophotometer for Education in Chemistry
Kolesnichenko, Pavel V. LU
; Eriksson, Axl
LU
; Lindh, Linnea
LU
; Zigmantas, Donatas
LU
and Uhlig, Jens
LU
(2023)
In Journal of Chemical Education
100(3).
p.1128-1137
- Abstract
Investigating the optical properties of various chemical compounds using UV-vis spectrophotometers is an essential part of education in chemistry. However, commercial spectrophotometers are usually treated as "magic black boxes", where the dominant majority of optical elements are hidden "under the hood". This often limits understanding of the mechanisms behind the generation of spectral curves, which in turn may impede the ability to understand the limitations of the applied method and, in some cases, interpret the acquired data. In addition, the study of optical emission phenomena using fluorescence spectrophotometers is seldom implemented in educational laboratories due to the practical challenges and costs of the devices, which... (More)
Investigating the optical properties of various chemical compounds using UV-vis spectrophotometers is an essential part of education in chemistry. However, commercial spectrophotometers are usually treated as "magic black boxes", where the dominant majority of optical elements are hidden "under the hood". This often limits understanding of the mechanisms behind the generation of spectral curves, which in turn may impede the ability to understand the limitations of the applied method and, in some cases, interpret the acquired data. In addition, the study of optical emission phenomena using fluorescence spectrophotometers is seldom implemented in educational laboratories due to the practical challenges and costs of the devices, which severely limit pedagogic access to this topic. For students to be more confident with these two basic spectroscopy techniques, we have developed a laboratory kit that provides a multifaceted learning experience. Starting with a basic exploration of an instrument assembly, it teaches, for example, such technical concepts as spectral resolution and detection sensitivity. More fundamentally, it enables deeper learning of the Beer-Lambert law and the notion of Stokes shift. The spectrophotometer is built from cost-efficient materials and is easily scalable, making it affordable for many educational laboratories. Due to a modular design, it is adaptable to various levels of education and has been successfully applied during high school-, undergraduate-, and graduate-level classes.
(Less)
- author
- Kolesnichenko, Pavel V.
LU
; Eriksson, Axl
LU
; Lindh, Linnea
LU
; Zigmantas, Donatas
LU
and Uhlig, Jens
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- absorption, chemistry, education, fluorescence, outreach, project-based learning, spectrometer, spectrophotometer, spectroscopy
- in
- Journal of Chemical Education
- volume
- 100
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 1128 - 1137
- publisher
- The American Chemical Society (ACS)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85148020937
- ISSN
- 0021-9584
- DOI
- 10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00679
- project
- Viking Spectrophotometer: A Home-Built, Simple, and Cost-Efficient Absorption and Fluorescence Spectrophotometer for Education in Chemistry
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2578fffa-10e4-444d-b06b-b4d16b4f5781
- date added to LUP
- 2023-03-08 14:54:18
- date last changed
- 2023-11-21 05:32:12
@article{2578fffa-10e4-444d-b06b-b4d16b4f5781,
abstract = {{<p>Investigating the optical properties of various chemical compounds using UV-vis spectrophotometers is an essential part of education in chemistry. However, commercial spectrophotometers are usually treated as "magic black boxes", where the dominant majority of optical elements are hidden "under the hood". This often limits understanding of the mechanisms behind the generation of spectral curves, which in turn may impede the ability to understand the limitations of the applied method and, in some cases, interpret the acquired data. In addition, the study of optical emission phenomena using fluorescence spectrophotometers is seldom implemented in educational laboratories due to the practical challenges and costs of the devices, which severely limit pedagogic access to this topic. For students to be more confident with these two basic spectroscopy techniques, we have developed a laboratory kit that provides a multifaceted learning experience. Starting with a basic exploration of an instrument assembly, it teaches, for example, such technical concepts as spectral resolution and detection sensitivity. More fundamentally, it enables deeper learning of the Beer-Lambert law and the notion of Stokes shift. The spectrophotometer is built from cost-efficient materials and is easily scalable, making it affordable for many educational laboratories. Due to a modular design, it is adaptable to various levels of education and has been successfully applied during high school-, undergraduate-, and graduate-level classes.</p>}},
author = {{Kolesnichenko, Pavel V. and Eriksson, Axl and Lindh, Linnea and Zigmantas, Donatas and Uhlig, Jens}},
issn = {{0021-9584}},
keywords = {{absorption; chemistry; education; fluorescence; outreach; project-based learning; spectrometer; spectrophotometer; spectroscopy}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{1128--1137}},
publisher = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
series = {{Journal of Chemical Education}},
title = {{Viking Spectrophotometer : A Home-Built, Simple, and Cost-Efficient Absorption and Fluorescence Spectrophotometer for Education in Chemistry}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00679}},
doi = {{10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00679}},
volume = {{100}},
year = {{2023}},
}