UV-visible absorption spectrometer

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Dr. Liu's group makes polymer and polymer/inorganic nanostructures of various types and explores their applications in medical diagnostics, cosmetics, microelectronics, and lubrication.  The preparation of many of these nanostructures involves polymer reactions.  An efficient way to follow the occurrence of such chemical reactions is to use a UV-Visible absorption spectrometer (UV-Vis).  This is currently done in Dr. Liu's lab by an old UV-Vis, which he inherited from another faculty member 8 years ago.  Since early 2006 this instrument has been malfunctioning and freezes about twice a day in the middle of a measurement.  When this happens, one has to shut sown the whole system and warm it up again.  This is then followed by reference measurement.  The whole process takes about 30 minutes.  Since this happens so often using the instrument is now a frustrating experience to his group members.  This malfunctioning becomes especially annoying when a student is in the middle of a chemical kinetic experiment because it may lead to complete experiment rerun and significant time and reagent waste.  The instrument also needs frequent servicing.  Requested here is a replacement for the obsolete system to follow polymer reactions and support other research activities on-going in his group.  The updated instrument will help familiarize and train students and post-doctoral fellows with a model that is more likely to be found in other academic or industrial chemical laboratories.