Instrumentation Flashcards
What is electromagnetic radiation?
A wave that consists of an oscillating magnetic field, perpendicular to an oscillating electric field.
What happens when two waves of light are in the same phase?
Constructive interference occurs and the amplitude of the waves are summed.
What happens when two waves of light are not in the same phase?
Destructive interference occurs and the amplitude of the waves are subtracted.
What are the wavelengths responsible for an electronic transition in molecules?
Visible (380-788 nm) and ultraviolet (180-380 nm).
What are the wavelengths responsible for vibrational and rotational transitions in molecules?
Near-infrared (0.78-2.5 μm) and mid-infrared (2.5-50 μm)
How does a solvent affect a spectrum?
The solvent interacts with the molecule and reduces molecular motion. This causes the peak to broaden.
What is a double-beam instrument?
An instrument that has two beams of light. One of the beams passes through a reference, the other passes through a sample.
What is the flowchart for a UV/Vis spectrometer?
Light Source → Wavelength Selector (Diffraction Grating) → Sample → Detector → Signal Processor and Readout
What are the features of the light source in UV/Vis spectroscopy?
Continuum light sources are used - these emit all wavelengths of light.
They must be reliable and powerful and have a stable output.
A tungsten lamp is usually used.
What are the features of the wavelength selector in UV/Vis spectroscopy?
A diffraction grating is used. This consists of grooves where the peak of each groove is highly reflective. There are around 2000 grooves per mm.
What is a modern alternative monochromater?
The Czerny-Turner monochromator.
What happens in a Czerny-Turner monochromator?
Light passes through an entrance slit and is reflected onto a reflection grating using a concave mirror. The light is reflected on the reflection grating and it hits another concave mirror which reflects the light to an exit slit.
What are the features of the sample in UV/Vis spectroscopy?
The sample is placed into a glass or synthetic quartz cuvette (quartz if UV is required).
There are ways that intensity can be lost such as reflection losses at the interface and scattering in solution.
How can the loss of light intensity be mitigated?
By using a reference sample.
What is an example of a detector in UV/Vis spectroscopy and how does it work?
A phototube. It is a glass tube under a vacuum containing a plate cathode (negative) and a wire anode (positive).
The UV/Vis light has enough energy to trigger electron emission from the cathode which causes a flow of current.
How is a calibration curve made?
Find the absorbance of known concentrations of the analyte.
What is absorbance?
Absorbance is a logarithmic term.
A = -log T
What is the molar absorption coefficient?
A measure of how strongly a chemical absorbs light at a particular wavelength.
What happens to the Beer Lambert law if A is very high?
The linear relationship breaks down and does not work.
What is the ideal range for absorbances?
0.1 to 2 (this covers transmittance of 1% to 80%).
If the concentration is too high, molecular interactions occur and this causes a deviation from linearity.
Where does light splitting in a UV/Vis dual beam instrument take place?
After the monochromator and before the sample/reference.
What are the benefits of using a dual beam instrument?
Removes variation due to the instrument and removes background signal from the sample.
Essentially, it removes some systematic error. It doesn’t remove random error.
What is the flowchart for a FTIR spectrometer?
Light Source → Wavelength Selector (Michelson Interferometer and Laser) → Sample → Detector → Signal Processor and Spectrum
What are the features of the IR source?
A globar light source is made of silicon carbide and is heated to 1500 °C.
A Nernst glower light source is made of zirconium yttrium oxides and is heated to 1100 °C.
Both of them provide broad band emissions.
What are the features of the Michelson Interferometer?
All wavelengths are introduced at once and they hit a beam splitter which causes two beams to be produced. One of the beams goes on to hit a stationary mirror and the other hits a moveable mirror. The difference in the path length causes constructive or destructive interference. The beams are then recombined and a Fourier transform is conducted on the complex interference pattern.
If the waves are in phase, by how much does the mirror have to move by to become out of phase in an interferometer?
A quarter of a wavelength.
This is because the signal goes there and back.
What are the features of the laser in FTIR?
The laser is of a known wavelength, and this calibrates the movement of the mirror.
As the distance the mirror needs to move to have constructive interference on the laser is known, the mirror position is known.
How is a sample typically prepared for FTIR?
The sample is mixed with potassium bromide and compressed into a pellet. KBr is used as it is transparent to IR.
Another method is using ATR.
What are the features of the detector for FTIR?
A photovoltaic detector is used.
Photoconductive transducers consist of a thin film of a semiconductor, such as mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) on a non-conducting glass surface. IR radiation promotes non-conducting valence electrons to a higher energy state which decreases the bulk resistance of the device. These are placed in series with a voltage source and a load resistor and the voltage drop measures the radiant power of the incident beam of radiation.
The MCR detector is used for mid-IR and is cooled by liquid nitrogen to reduce thermal noise.
What is an interferogram?
A graph of the light measured by the detector (wave amplitude) against mirror position.
As the mirror position is altered, the intensity of each wavelength varies.
In an interferogram, what is the large peak in the middle called?
The zero path difference and this represents maximum intensity for all wavelengths.
What does a Fourier Transform do?
Converts a graph of amplitude against time to a graph of power/amplitude against frequency.
What are the three steps for signal processing in FTIR?
1) Measure the background spectrum.
2) Measure the spectrum with the sample in place.
3) Subtract the background from the sample spectrum.
How can the resolution and intensity of an FTIR scan be increased?
Many scans can be taken and coadded together to improve the signal to noise ratio.
There can be a large optical path difference (the mirror moves further). This increases the accuracy of the Fourier Transform of the interferogram.
Increasing the electrical gain at the detector (more current) can enhance intensity but it will also increase signal to noise ratio.
Why doesn’t increasing the resolution in an FTIR scan always decrease the bandwidth?
The natural width of spectral bands in solids and liquids are several wavenumbers across so measurements at high resolutions are ineffective.
When should high spectral resolutions be used in FTIR?
When a sample requires it and in gases.
What are the benefits of using Fourier Transform in IR spectroscopy?
Multiplex advantage - simultaneously measured over a range of frequencies.
Fewer moving parts so very reliable.
Very fast.
High resolution and sensitivity. High precision and accuracy.
Well established technology.
Why is atomic spectroscopy less complex than molecular spectroscopy?
As there are no bonds, vibrations and rotations are not present and so only electronic transitions are measured.
What is the difference between atomic absorption and atomic emission spectroscopy?
Atomic absorption is concerned with the excitation of electrons to a higher energy state whereas atomic emission is concerned with the relaxation of electrons to a lower energy state.
What are the features of atomic emission spectra?
They consist of narrow lines of finite width and the lines are characteristic of specific elements.
What is atomic emission spectroscopy?
Measuring the emission from an atom in the excited state to identify the elemental composition.
What is the flowchart for atomic emission spectroscopy?
Nebulization → Atomization → Excitation → Wavelength Selector → Detector
What is nebulization and what are the features of a nebulizer?
A nebulizer breaks up the sample into very fine droplets (mist).
It works by having a high velocity stream of gas which is mixed with a flow of the liquid sample. This breaks the sample up into very fine droplets.
What are the steps for atomization and excitation?
1) Nebulized sample is passed into a flame.
2) Primary combustion zone - the solvent is evaporated.
3) Interzonal zone - the finely divided solid particles are carried into the inner cone where particles are vapourised. Excitation also happens here.
4) Secondary combustion zone - all material is ‘consumed’.
The excitation occurs at a very low efficiency and only a small number of atoms are excited.
What does a flow spoiler do in atomic emission spectroscopy?
Removes large droplets. If these are not removed, molecules will still be present.
What are the features of the burner head in atomic emission spectroscopy?
It is long and has a high path length.