Purity, specification spectrophotometric

Objective Evaluation of Color. In recent years a method has been devised and internationally adopted (International Commission on Illumination, I.C.I.) that makes possible objective specification of color in terms of equivalent stimuli. It provides a common language for description of the color of an object illuminated by a standard illuminant and viewed by a standard observer (H). Reflectance spectro-photometric curves, such as those described above, provide the necessary data. The results are expressed in one of two systems the tristimulus system in which the equivalent stimulus is a mixture of three standard primaries, or the heterogeneous-homogeneous system in which the equivalent stimulus is a mixture of light from a standard heterogeneous illuminant and a pure spectrum color (dominant wave-length-purity system). These systems provide a means of expressing the objective time-constant spectrophotometric results in numerical form, more suitable for tabulation and correlation studies. In the application to food work, the necessary experimental data have been obtained with spectrophotometers or certain photoelectric colorimeters. 

Comparative studies of the widely employed spectrophotometric readings at the Soret and Q bands (405 and 630 nm, respectively) and the elemental analysis of copper and nitrogen showed that the spectrophotometric assay based only on the Soret band can overestimate the purity of a preparation. Erroneous data were attributed to an increase in absorptivity at the Soret band when other colored compounds like metal-free analogs and carotenoids are present. Indeed, copper-free chlorin e6 exhibits a specific absorbance 3.6 times greater than that of its coppered counterpart. Therefore, measurements at the Q band (630 mn) and the establishment of the S Q ratio are preferred. 

Sodium copper chlorophyllin, approved by the FDA as a color additive in citrus-based dry beverage mixes, should have a ratio of absorbance (SoretQ band) not less than 3.4 and not more than 3.9. In Europe, purity criteria of the food additives E141[i] and E141[ii], which are copper complexes of chlorophyll and chlorophyllin, respectively, are set out in the EC color specifications that include identification and spectrophotometric assay tests. ... 

Ultra-violet and visible spectrophotometry can be effectively used for the control of purification and specification of purity of compounds. If a compound is transparent in the near ultra-violet and the visible regions, the purification is continued until the absorbancy is reduced to a minimum (e < 1). Traces of impurities present in pure transparent organic compounds can be readily detected and estimated, provided the impurities themselves have fairly intense, absorption bands. Before a liquid is used as a spectroscopic solvent, it should be tested for spectrophotometric purity. For example, commercial absolute alcohol usually contains benzene as impurity. The absence of benzene in the Alcohol should be confirmed spectrophoto-metrically by using sufficiently large cells (4 or 10 cm cells), before using the alcohol as a solvent. The presence of carbon disulphide in carbon tetrachloride may be detected by the presence of the disulphide absorption tend at 318 mytt. The detection of the characteristic benzenoid absorption in the spectra of many organic compounds (e.g. diethyl ether, cyclohexene) showed that the bands attributed to these compounds earlier were only due to the contamination by benzene1. 

Spectrophotometric. Purified for spectrophotometric work. These are high-purity, low residue on evaporation, and with a clean UV spectrum with specified absorbances at specific wavelengths. 

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