SPECTROPHOTOMETRY AND SPECTROMETRY - CONCEPT AND APPLICATIONS

Electronics and Communication Engineering

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN ENGINEERING

Spectrophotometry is a technique which measures how much a substance absorbs light by measuring the intensity of light, as a beam of light passes through it. The basic principle is that every compound absorbs or transmits light over a certain range of frequencies (wavelengths). If we take a measure of this, it could be used to measure the amount of a known substance in an unknown medium. Spectrophotometry is one of the most useful methods of quantitative analysis in various fields such as chemistry, physics, biochemistry, forensic science, agriculture, material and chemical engineering and clinical applications. A spectrometer gives the detail of exactly which all wavelengths of light are absorbed and which all wavelengths of light are reflected whereas a spectrophotometer gives a comparative measure by measuring the relative intensity of the light absorbed or reflected at a particular wavelength of light. Spectrometric and spectrophotometric techniques can be used for a wide range of elemental and compositional analyses that provide a very high and accurate detection limits in the sub-ppm level of chemical compound which could be made useful in various applications. Some of the spectrophotometers can be used to monitor the separations obtained while doing liquid chromatography and some others could be used for colour selection and printing. Optimum balance of NPK in soil and protein concentration in various substances can also be monitored by the use of spectrometers. Thus there are many key areas where spectrometry and spectrophotometry are used like pharmacology, industries, agriculture, printing, painting and much more of which some of them are detailed in this paper.

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