In introductory analytical chemistry courses, the components of a spectrophotometer and the Beer-Lambert law are introduced as an important concept. According to the literature (and our own experience), there are occasions when demonstrations are used for teaching instrumental analytical chemistry because they are a less expensive or a safer way of providing students with practices of instruments' components [1]. The analytical instruments, e.g. spectrophotometers, are
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often expensive and complex to operate, hence not suitable for introductory chemistry experiments. Therefore, it is helpful to build a simple and cheap device for demonstrating basic principles, functions, and components of the spectrophotometer. Devising portable and simple colorimeter faces some challenges. The first is providing a simple light source with a monochromatic light and the second is adopting a cheap and simple detector. The electronic industry within few past decades has created a great variety of devices that are of considerable advantages when applied in chemical instrumentation. These devices could help to overcome the challenges in devising cheap and simple colorimeters. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) received a great interest in analytical applications and for use as a light source in commercial portable absorption devices [2]. LEDs with colors ranging from the blue to the infrared are available and cover almost all the wavelength ranges required for the analytical spectrophotometers. Since these light sources emit light of relatively narrow band widths (ca. 20-100 nm) they have been used as a monochromatic light source. Another challenge in the development of portable analytical devices is to reduce detector size. Common photoresistors (small, cheap and accessible device) which are other newly devised electronic products can be used as detector in portable colorimeters. In the last three decades many LED-based colorimeters have been described in the literature [3]. In the proposed colorimeters the detectors (photodiodes or phototransistors) have usually been connected to operational amplifiers for amplifying the out put current. In most cases, either the optical fiber bundles are employed to guide light radiation of LED to the measuring cell [4] or the instruments controlled by a microcomputer [5] or software and complicated circuits employed to acquiring and processing data [6]. A few of these are relatively simple and devised for educational purposes [7,8]. Although the reports in the literature reveals a great deal of advances on colorimeters, still efforts for simplifying the colorimeters seems to be of importance. It was intended to devise a very simple colorimeter for demonstrating the spectrophotometer components and its use for analytical determinations. The present work describes an LED-photoresistor based colorimeter which directly uses resistance values without any need to transform current values or voltages (which is a common practice) or for a computer or a minicomputer to control the device. The proposed device is very cheap, light in weight, compact, and portable. It does not involve complicated components, employs an inexpensive photoresistor as a detector, and is easy to operate. Since it is capable of being operated by small dry batteries, it is a suitable device for use in classroom or laboratory for demonstration of spectrophotometer's components and functions.
In introductory analytical chemistry courses, the components of a spectrophotometer and the Beer-Lambert law are introduced as an important concept. According to the literature (and our own experience), there are occasions when demonstrations are used for teaching instrumental analytical chemistry because they are a less expensive or a safer way of providing students with practices of instruments' components [1]. The analytical instruments, e.g. spectrophotometers, are
177
often expensive and complex to operate, hence not suitable for introductory chemistry experiments. Therefore, it is helpful to build a simple and cheap device for demonstrating basic principles, functions, and components of the spectrophotometer. Devising portable and simple colorimeter faces some challenges. The first is providing a simple light source with a monochromatic light and the second is adopting a cheap and simple detector. The electronic industry within few past decades has created a great variety of devices that are of considerable advantages when applied in chemical instrumentation. These devices could help to overcome the challenges in devising cheap and simple colorimeters. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) received a great interest in analytical applications and for use as a light source in commercial portable absorption devices [2]. LEDs with colors ranging from the blue to the infrared are available and cover almost all the wavelength ranges required for the analytical spectrophotometers. Since these light sources emit light of relatively narrow band widths (ca. 20-100 nm) they have been used as a monochromatic light source. Another challenge in the development of portable analytical devices is to reduce detector size. Common photoresistors (small, cheap and accessible device) which are other newly devised electronic products can be used as detector in portable colorimeters. In the last three decades many LED-based colorimeters have been described in the literature [3]. In the proposed colorimeters the detectors (photodiodes or phototransistors) have usually been connected to operational amplifiers for amplifying the out put current. In most cases, either the optical fiber bundles are employed to guide light radiation of LED to the measuring cell [4] or the instruments controlled by a microcomputer [5] or software and complicated circuits employed to acquiring and processing data [6]. A few of these are relatively simple and devised for educational purposes [7,8]. Although the reports in the literature reveals a great deal of advances on colorimeters, still efforts for simplifying the colorimeters seems to be of importance. It was intended to devise a very simple colorimeter for demonstrating the spectrophotometer components and its use for analytical determinations. The present work describes an LED-photoresistor based colorimeter which directly uses resistance values without any need to transform current values or voltages (which is a common practice) or for a computer or a minicomputer to control the device. The proposed device is very cheap, light in weight, compact, and portable. It does not involve complicated components, employs an inexpensive photoresistor as a detector, and is easy to operate. Since it is capable of being operated by small dry batteries, it is a suitable device for use in classroom or laboratory for demonstration of spectrophotometer's components and functions.
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