Our group have developed a pocket visible range spectrophotometer (www.testright.in) and are looking for application areas where we can put it to use. Most of the conventiontial 'color reading' applications have been catered by colorimeter.
In such case, we are wondering what all applications exist which can be served only by a spectrophotometer?
Low cost, compact visible wavelength spectrophotometers have been commercially available for many years. Did you review the existing markets and applications served by the models currently available for examples?
Can you define how a visible spectrophotometer instrument is different from a colorimeter?
Just based on common terminology, a scientific "spectrophotometer" usually describes an instrument which can measure and scan a full range of discreet wavelengths at high resolution where as a "colorimeter" often measures specific wavelength ranges per setting (e.g. 400-450nm).
Henrik
A colorimeter looks at the light interaction with the sample at discrete wavelengths, where as a spectrophotometer scans through the whole range i.e. it plots the light absorbance by the sample as a function of wavelength.
Colour comparator -Colorimeter - spectrophotometer based on more or less same principle. However spectrometer is advancement of technology. Which is further advancement by ICP-MS and various others. Appreciate Henrik remark.
Dr.Henrik - I think that Dr.William and Shubham have rightly explained the difference between spectrophotometer and colorimeter. Regards
Thanks everyone for their input. Can someone please help with the original question?
Both instruments are basically same, but in practice, a colorimeter measures the results of a chemical/enzymatic reaction(quantitative) a spectrophotometer can measure not only the final results, but also track the proggression of reactions with changing reaction rates.
Colorimeter And spectrophotomer both are well known. What they provide is well known in literatur. It is good, you developed a pocket spectrophotomer. after testing the instrument provide its usefulness and show what way your pocket spectrophotomer is beneficial to others.
Dear Shubham, Your pocket spectrophotometer is nice and one application could be online reaction monitoring e.g. bleaching or cases where a light absorbing product appears. A colorimeter cannot scan the wavelengths. There are two areas of improvements which will make your product better.
(a) Can you extend the wavelengths to UV?
(b) Attach a fiber-optic probe where you can dip the UV-Vis cell like a pH probe.
Of course, another market area is the educational sector, where low-budget colleges cannot afford a full fledged scanning spectrophotometer.
Have you seen Ocean Optics spectrophotometers?
Thank you Dr. Farooq for your crisp answer.
Online monitoring is one thing we definitely like to explore. Do you know someone who would like to explore its application with our device?
And to answer your questions:
a) We like to start with the visible range as the product is already there and later move on to the UV range.
b) We have a provision of inserting the fiber-optic probe into the cuvette area and its other end can be dipped into the sample.
Yes, we have had used Ocean Optics devices but our goal is to make the whole system more affordable and accessible.
Educational sector is where we are presently selling the device to.
The key difference between colorimeters and spectrophotometers ( spectro) is firstly that a spectro gives you full multi-parameter spectral determination while typically, a colorimeter only provides a three parameter R,G,B measurement. Secondly, the spectral result delivers a full physical quantification while the R,G,B measurement is subject to the nature and quality of the filters used. Further, the information present in measured transmittance and reflectance spectra is the basis of the X,Y,Z and L*a*b* colour co-ordinates derived by CIE colorimetry; of visual equivalence and colour mixture and colour recipe prediction; and product colour management world wide.
I would like to express my opinion. Both direct application of photometer or colorimeter cannot become determinative method, due to the violence against "Lambert-Beer's Law". Lambert-Beer's law says that pure molecule without interferences is only determinative giving linear calibration line inserting to the zero point. Therefore, the HPLC-photometric method uniquely obeys the Lambert-Beer's law and shows the quantitative and reliable results.
anything below 400 nm and above 400 nanometers will fall into your example. It is that simple.
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