UV-Vis-NIR Absorption Spectrometer

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Many nanoscale materials and macro-molecular assemblies, including quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and conjugated polymers, exhibit photophysical properties that make them valuable for a variety of applications, such as in telecommunications, diagnostics, and sensors. The creation of substances that absorb, process, and emit light at different wavelengths allows control over optical signals that transmit information, enable detection of analytes, or identify the nature of a chemical species. As an example, commercially produced carbon nanotubes are mixtures of multiple nanotube types, which range in conductivity properties from semiconducting to metallic. Each of these nanotube types exhibits a unique and characteristic photophysical signature that can be measured and recorded. By knowing the photophysical signatures of nanotube samples, it is possible to identify the nanotube present and whether treatment or purification procedures are effective in isolating specific nanotube types that are useful for sensory or diagnostic applications. Identification of nanotube types requires the measurement of their light absorption spectrum in the ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which covers a wavelength range of 200 to 2000 nm. Currently, there is no instrument capable of such measurements at McMaster University, which significantly hampers and delays the progress and publications of over 70 researchers within 8 research groups in the faculties of science and engineering. This application therefore requests a spectrophotometer that is capable of precisely measuring light absorption in the UV-Vis-NIR region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This instrument is in dire need by a number of research groups, and will enable numerous studies that are currently impossible at McMaster.