Shedding the light on spectrophotometry: the SpecUP educational spectrophotometer

Abstract

Students often regard laboratory instruments as "black boxes" which generate results, without understanding their principles of operation. This is a concern, as the correct interpretation of analytical results and the limitations thereof is invariably based on an understanding of the mechanism of measurement. Moreover, a number of tertiary institutions in Africa have very limited resources and access to laboratory equipment, including that related to the field of photonics, which prevents students from getting hands-on practical experience. This paper addresses both of these challenges, by allowing students to assemble a low cost spectrophotometer, called the SpecUP, which is then used in a range of chemistry-related experiments. Students can vary instrumental parameters to observe the effects these changes have on their experimental results. The SpecUP costs less than 50 euro to build, as compared to similar to 3 000 euro for commercial systems. Examples of the results obtained using the SpecUP in applied chemistry experiments are briefly presented here.