Chemists have created a cheap spectrophotometer with built-in LEDs

Spectrophotometer is a device designed to measure the ratio of two fluxes of optical radiation,

one of which is the flow incident on the sample under study, the other is the flow that has experienced one or another interaction with the sample.

Such devices are found in almost everya laboratory that deals with chemical analysis of substances. The cost of spectrophotometers is about $ 2 thousand - not a lot for a large laboratory of a large research institute and quite a lot for a small laboratory that does not have the means to purchase such equipment.

Scientists from Norwich University have found a waycreate a spectrophotometer, the cost of which is only $ 63. Moreover, such a device is absolutely not inferior in sensitivity to commercial devices, and can also be compared with them in the quality of data analysis.

Existing spectrophotometers usetungsten incandescent lamps as a light source in the range from 350 to 2,500 nanometers. The use of such radiation is necessary to reduce interfering factors.

Scientists have suggested using insteadtungsten lamps are LEDs, and any person with basic knowledge of electronics can assemble such a device. In addition, this device can operate on a six-volt motorcycle battery, so it can be transported and analyzed even outside the laboratory.