Cuvette Selection and Handling

Cuvettes used for UV-VIS spectrophotometry must be transparent to all wavelengths of light for which it is used. If visible light is used, the material must ideally be completely clear and colorless, which means that inexpensive materials, such as colorless plastic and ordinary colorless glass, are perfectly suitable. A case of 500 plastic 1-cm-square cuvettes may cost as little as 50. However, ordinary colorless glass and plastic are not transparent to light in the ultraviolet region. For ultraviolet spectrophotometry, the cuvettes must be made of quartz, which is more expensive. A matched set of two cuvettes to be used in a doublebeam spectrophotometer may cost as much as 400. 

If two or more different cuvettes are used in an analysis, one should be sure that they are matched. Matched cuvettes are identical with respect to pathlength and reflective and refractive properties in the 

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