

This would come as a solution to the previously created spectrophotometers which were unable to absorb the ultraviolet correctly. Beckman in 1940, the spectrophotometer was created with the aid of his colleagues at his company National Technical Laboratories founded in 1935 which would become Beckman Instrument Company and ultimately Beckman Coulter. In astronomy, the term spectrophotometry refers to the measurement of the spectrum of a celestial object in which the flux scale of the spectrum is calibrated as a function of wavelength, usually by comparison with an observation of a spectrophotometric standard star, and corrected for the absorption of light by the Earth's atmosphere. : 65 Ultimately, a spectrophotometer is able to determine, depending on the control or calibration, what substances are present in a target and exactly how much through calculations of observed wavelengths. Spectrophotometry is often used in measurements of enzyme activities, determinations of protein concentrations, determinations of enzymatic kinetic constants, and measurements of ligand binding reactions. They are widely used in many industries including semiconductors, laser and optical manufacturing, printing and forensic examination, as well as in laboratories for the study of chemical substances. The use of spectrophotometers spans various scientific fields, such as physics, materials science, chemistry, biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, and molecular biology. This is based upon its specific and distinct makeup. Each type of molecule has an individual set of energy levels associated with the makeup of its chemical bonds and nuclei and thus will absorb light of specific wavelengths, or energies, resulting in unique spectral properties. The absorption of light is due to the interaction of light with the electronic and vibrational modes of molecules. The amount of light that passes through the solution is indicative of the concentration of certain chemicals that do not allow light to pass through. In order to determine the respective concentrations of reactants and products at this point, the light transmittance of the solution can be tested using spectrophotometry. At some point, this chemical reaction will reach a point of balance called an equilibrium point. A certain chemical reaction within a solution may occur in a forward and reverse direction, where reactants form products and products break down into reactants. Īn example of an experiment in which spectrophotometry is used in the determination of the equilibrium constant of a solution. Within these ranges of light, calibrations are needed on the machine using standards that vary in type depending on the wavelength of the photometric determination. : 65 However, they can also be designed to measure the diffusivity on any of the listed light ranges that usually cover around 200–2500 nm using different controls and calibrations. Although many biochemicals are colored, as in, they absorb visible light and therefore can be measured by colorimetric procedures, even colorless biochemicals can often be converted to colored compounds suitable for chromogenic color-forming reactions to yield compounds suitable for colorimetric analysis. Important features of spectrophotometers are spectral bandwidth (the range of colors it can transmit through the test sample), the percentage of sample-transmission, the logarithmic range of sample-absorption, and sometimes a percentage of reflectance measurement.Ī spectrophotometer is commonly used for the measurement of transmittance or reflectance of solutions, transparent or opaque solids, such as polished glass, or gases.

Spectrophotometry is a tool that hinges on the quantitative analysis of molecules depending on how much light is absorbed by colored compounds.
