Exam 3 Flashcards
What are the two natures of electromagnetic radiation?
wave and particle
What is the equation for photon energy? (relationship between energy and frequency)
E = hv = hc/(wavelength)
h = Planck’s constant (6.626 x 10 ^ -34 Js)
c = the speed of light (2.998 x 10 ^ 8 m/s)
What is the unit for the particle nature of electromagnetic raidation?
photons
What are the equations for the wave nature of electromagnetic radiation?
Speed of propagation (in a vacuum) = (c) = 2.998 x 10^8 m/s
Frequency (v) = c / (wavelength)
Describe the electromagnetic spectrum. Which way does energy increase? What are the types of waves in order?
What are the effects of electromagnetic radiation on various waves? Radio waves? Microwaves? Infrared? Visible? Ultraviolet? X-rays? Gamma Rays?
What are the two steps always involved in luminescence spectroscopy?
- Excitation (photon absorption) : atom enters excited state
- Relaxation: atom returns from excited state to ground state
What are four types of molecular spectroscopy? What is the excitation process (same for all types)? and what is each type’s relaxation process?
Why is an object red?
A red object absorbs visible wavelengths except for red;
red is reflected (and transmitted, if the object is clear.)
What is lambda max?
the wavelength a sample absorbs most strongly is called (lambda symbol) max
What is spectrophotometry?
any technique that uses light to measure chemical concentrations
What is frequency? What are the units for frequency?
- the number of complete oscillations that the wave makes
- units = sec^-1
- one oscillation per second is called one hertz (Hz)
What are the fundamental molecular spectrophotometry equations?
Transmittance T = I / Io
Absorbance A = -log T
What is luminescence?
the emission of light from an excited state of a molecule
fluorescence and phosphorescence are both examples of this
What is the lowest energy state of a molecule?
the ground state
What is fluorescence?
the radiational transition S1 -> S0
What is phosphorescence?
the radiational transition T1 -> S0
Compare phosphorescence and fluorescence. (in terms of energy and wavelength)
The energy of phosphorescence is less than the energy of fluorescence so phosphorescence comes at longer wavelengths than fluorescence
What is a singlet state?
the state in which the spins are opposed
What is a triplet state?
the state in which the spins are parallel
Describe how you would sketch the visible spectrum of a substance knowing only is color and absorbance or transmittance.
The color of transmitted light is the complement of the color that is absorbed. If blue green light is absorbed, red light is transmitted
What are the two main types of luminescence experiments?
emission spectrum and excitation spectrum
How do you produce an emission spectrum?
- If we hold the excitation wavelength fixed and scan through the emitted radiation, an emission spectrum is produced.
- An emission spectrum is a graph of emission intensity versus emission wavelength (observed at lower energy than the absorption spectrum and tends to be the mirror image of the absorption spectrum)
How do you produce an excitation spectrum?
- An excitation spectrum is measured by varying the excitation wavelength and measuring emitted light at one particular wavelength
- An excitation spectrum is a graph of emission intensity vs excitation wavelength (similar to an absorption spectrum (absorption vs wavelength))
What is the main problem with fluorescence and phosphorescence as analytical tools?
Most analytes don’t fluoresce/phosphoresce
What are the advantages of fluorescence/phosphorescence as analytical tools?
- For molecules that luminesce, luminescence spectrophotometry is usually very sensitive and has low detection limits – even single molecules in favorable cases
- Since most compounds don’t fluoresce the method is usually free of background interference by the solvent
What do many analytes that fluoresce have in common?
contain aromatic rings
What distinguishes fluorescence from phosphorescence?
- Phosphorescence emits photons at a longer wavelength than fluorescence
- Phosphorescence emission occurs due to relaxation from the excited triplet state while fluorescence results from relaxation from the excited singlet state
- The lifetime of the excited state is orders of magnitude longer in phosphorescence (ns to ms but sometimes hours) than fluorescence (ps to ns)
What can be measured using light scattering?
suspended particles can be measured using light scattering
Analytical applications:
- Quantifying particulate matter in natural water
- Determining polymer size (MW) and shape
* Both synthetic and natural polymers (proteins)
* MALS (multi-angle light scattering)
What are two types of light scattering techniques?
- Turbidimetry - measuring how much light reaches the detector directly through the sample
- Nephelometry - measuring how much light is scattered below (at a right angle) by the sample
What is the beer-lambert law?
- A = abc, where a is absorptivity coefficient, b is the path cell length (in cm) and c is the concentration of the analyte
- A = ebc only if the concentration units are mol/L and the path length units are in cm
- e = molar absorptivity or extinction coefficient, units are M^-1cm^-1
What is the beer lambert law for mixtures?
A = a1b1c1 + a2b2c2 + a3b3c3…
What is the basic design for most spectrophotometers?
light source, monochromator, sample, detector
What are light sources for UV-Vis light spectrophotometers?
- Tungsten lamp for wavelengths >350 n
- Deuterium lamp for wavelengths <350 nm
What are gratings made of? What are two types of gratings in monochromators?
- Flat glass or metal with grooves, spacing of the grooves must be even
- May be transmission (inexpensive) or reflection gratings (expensive, high quality)
What are three types of detectors for spectrophotometers?
A phototube light detector, A photomultiplier tube light detector, A CCD or Charge Coupled Device (aka Diode Array)
How does a phototube light detector work?
photons produce current, more photons = more current, problem – not incredibly sensitive
How does a photomultiplier tube light detector work?
photons produce current, more photons = more current, amplifies the current produced by a photon
What is a CCD and how does it work?
- Charge Coupled Device (aka Diode Array)
- highly sensitive photon detector.
- divided up into a large number of light-sensitive small areas known as pixels, which can be used to assemble an image of the area of interest.
- a silicon-based multi-channel array detector of UV, visible and near-infra light.
Describe the function of a spectrophotometer with a monochromator.
- selects one wavelength at a time and sends it through the sample to the detector
- rotates grating to select each wavelength (moving parts)
- rotates the grating slowly and plots detector response vs time
Describe the function of a spectrophotometer with a polychromator.
- accepts all wavelengths from the sample, separates them with a grating and sends each wavelength to a unique array detector element
- no need to rotate grating
- measures light intensities at all wavelengths