High-pressure absorption microspectroscopy of solutions

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This application requests a modestly-priced, two-piece equipment that will serve as a valuable accessory for two of our sophisticated spectrometers that we use for our research studies since 1992 and 2003. (The purchase of these instruments was also funded by NSERC.) The requested accessories will provide a potent research tool for our on-going projects aimed at understanding a variety of molecular phenomena that determine the optical properties (for example, the colour) of molecular building blocks or new materials. The new accessories will allow us to investigate the way in which various materials absorb or reflect light of different frequency. Moreover, we will be able to probe how certain external factors (for example, pressure) can affect the absorption of light by the new materials we prepare. It is important both for fundamental scientific reasons and practical applications to understand how the optical properties of a material changes when it is placed under pressure. This phenomenon is called piezochromism, and a range of new commercial applications are based on this characteristic of materials. The new equipment we hope to purchase will allow us to study the piezochromic properties of metallic compounds that have shown interesting responses to externally applied pressure. The relatively modest cost of the proposed instrumentation means that we can provide a powerful new research tool to our students at an attractive price-to-value ratio.