Cuvette design

Figure 7-24. Cuvette design for static and dynamic light-scattering.

The orbital experiment allowed the investigators to reveal the deficiencies of the cuvette design and of the experimental method, to improve the conditions for transportation and storage of e reaction mixture, and to develop new and updated procedures for laboratory processing of the obtained data. 

Let us examine some batch results. In trials in which 5 mL of a dye solution was added by pipet (with pressure) to 10 mL of water in a 25-mL flask, which was shaken to mix (as determined visually), and the mixed solution was delivered into a 3-mL rectangular cuvette, it was found that = 3-5 s, 2-4 s, and /obs 3-5 s. This is characteristic of conventional batch operation. Simple modifications can reduce this dead time. Reaction vessels designed for photometric titrations - may be useful kinetic tools. For reactions that are followed spectrophotometrically this technique is valuable Make a flat button on the end of a 4-in. length of glass rod. Deliver 3 mL of reaction medium into the rectangular cuvette in the spectrophotometer cell compartment. Transfer 10-100 p.L of a reactant stock solution to the button on the rod. Lower this into the cuvette, mix the solution with a few rapid vertical movements of the rod, and begin recording the dead time will be 3-8 s. A commercial version of the stirrer is available. 

In the authors experience, the amount of carbon dioxide in 10 microliters of blood can readily be determined by adding the blood to an acid, through which bubbles an inert gas. The CO2 is then brought into the field of a long cuvette, of approximately 20" in length, and the carbon dioxide measured at the near infrared with a filter instrument. Instrumentation can be designed readily for measurement of the carbon dioxide content of as little as 1 l of plasma with this principle at the rate of approximately 40-60 per hour. 

In these sensors, the intrinsic absorption of the analyte is measured directly. No indicator chemistry is involved. Thus, it is more a kind of remote spectroscopy, except that the instrument comes to the sample (rather than the sample to the instrument or cuvette). Numerous geometries have been designed for plain fiber chemical sensors, all kinds of spectroscopies (from IR to mid-IR and visible to the UV from Raman to light scatter, and from fluorescence and phosphorescence intensity to the respective decay times) have been exploited, and more sophisticated methods including evanescent wave spectroscopy and surface plasmon resonance have been applied. 

Let us dwell on Figure 6.4 for a moment. The standards and sample solutions are introduced to the instrument in a variety of ways. In the case of a pH meter and other electroanalytical instruments, the tips of one or two probes are immersed in the solution. In the case of an automatic digital Abbe refractometer (Chapter 15), a small quantity of the solution is placed on a prism at the bottom of a sample well inside the instrument. In an ordinary spectrophotometer (Chapters 7 and 8), the solution is held in a round (like a test tube) or square container called a cuvette, which fits in a holder inside the instrument. In an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Chapter 9), or in instruments utilizing an autosampler, the solution is sucked or aspirated into the instrument from an external container. In a chromatograph (Chapters 12 and 13), the solution is injected into the instrument with the use of a small-volume syringe. Once inside, or otherwise in contact with the instrument, the instrument is designed to act on the solution. We now address the processes that occur inside the instrument in order to produce the electrical signal that is seen at the readout. 

FIGURE 8.6 An illustration (top view) of the double-beam design utilizing two cuvette holders in the sample compartment. 

Design and selection of the sample interface is vital to provide the best-quahty data for an analysis. The sample interface may be located in the sample cavity of a spectrophotometer, as in the cases of laboratory cuvettes, vials, and flow cells. The sample interface may also be fiber-coupled and located closer to the process. Fiber-optic sample interfaces include flow cells, insertion probes, and reflectance probes. 

A colorimeter (Figure 4) has been designed specifically for analyzing >2/ ) passive samplers. It is lightweight, portable and simple to use. Features incorporated into the unit include a ten-minute timer with audible alarm to ensure complete color development of the samples before analysis, a cuvette slot which... 

The processed monochromatic light is then directed into a sample chamber, which can accommodate a wide variety of sample holders. Most UV-VIS measurements on biomolecules are taken on solutions of the molecules. The sample is placed in a tube or cuvette made of glass, quartz, or other transparent material. Figure 5.7 shows the design of the most common sample holders and the transmission properties of several transparent materials used in cuvette construction. 

Figure 17.11 Transmission spectroelectrochemistry cell designed for use with room-temperature haloaluminate melts and other moisture-reactive, corrosive liquids, (a) Auxiliary electrode and reference electrode compartments, (b) quartz cuvette containing the RVC-OTE, (c) brass clamping screw, (d) passageway between the separator and OTE compartment, (e) fritted glass separator, (f) A1 plate, (g) lower cell body (Teflon), (h) upper cell body (Teflon). This cell is normally used inside a glove box and is optically accessed with fiber optic waveguides. [From E. H. Ward and C. L. Hussey, Anal. Chem. 59 213 (1987), with permission.]...

The accuracy to which the droplet size distribution of an emulsion can be determined by a properly functioning and correctly operated laser diffraction instrument depends upon two major factors (1) the design of the optical system used to measure the diffraction pattern resulting from the transmission of a laser beam through the cuvette and (2) the sophistication... 

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