UV-Vis-NIR Absorption Spectrometer

许多纳米材料和大分子组件，包括量子点、碳纳米管和共轭聚合物，都表现出光物理性质，使它们在电信、诊断和传感器等方面具有重要的应用价值。吸收、处理和发射不同波长光的物质的产生允许控制传输信息的光学信号，使分析物能够检测，或识别化学物种的性质。例如，商业生产的碳纳米管是多种纳米管类型的混合物，其导电性能从半导体到金属不等。这些纳米管类型中的每一种都显示了一个独特的、可以测量和记录的光物理特征。通过了解纳米管样品的光物理特征，可以识别存在的纳米管，以及处理或纯化程序是否有效地分离出对感官或诊断应用有用的特定类型的纳米管。识别纳米管的类型需要测量其在电磁光谱的紫外线、可见光和近红外(UV-VIS-NIR)区域的光吸收光谱，该区域覆盖200至2000 nm的波长范围。目前，麦克马斯特大学没有能够进行这种测量的仪器，这严重阻碍和推迟了科学和工程学院8个研究小组中70多名研究人员的进展和发表。因此，这种应用需要一种能够精确测量电磁光谱的UV-VIS-NIR区域的光吸收的分光光度计。许多研究小组迫切需要这种仪器，这将使许多目前在麦克马斯特无法进行的研究成为可能。

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.