Talk:Spectrophotometry
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[edit] spectroPHOTOmeter is for VISIBLE light
If you look at the websites of manufacturers such as Perkin-Elmer (both UV/VIS and FTIR) or Bruker (FTIR), you'll see that they reserve the name "spectrophotometer" for UV/VIS/NIR, and use "spectrometer" for IR applications.
Note: the article overlaps with the article spectrometer.
-- Hankwang 09:55, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Thank you for your interest in my changes. I do hope you agree that spectrophotometers can measure reflectance as well as absorption, although I admit that such instruments are rare.
I agree that there is a lot of overlap in various articles, and I hope to be able to resolve some of it, but I think it will take some time. For one thing, I think there is no article yet on photometry as such. That might be the appropriate place to put a discussion of the various ways to measure light intensity.
I think the concept of a spectrometer covers a wider class of spectral measurements than just photometry.
There was a time when I was in the habit of calling a CD instrument a Circular Dichroism Spectrophotometer, but I was gently convinced to change to using the term Circular Dichroism Spectrometer. I found this distinction confusing, especially since CD is measured as a differential absorption. I think in this case the critical distinction is the intention of the measurement, a fine point. So I think it is fair to say that I have been struggling to clarify these concepts for myself for a while. As a consequence, I am grateful for your interest and for your help.
As to your specific objection, I think it is fair to say that UV and NIR are not visible. I did a quick google search and found plenty of hits for IR spectrophotometers. I also believe there is a historical precedent for using the term IR Spectrophotometer. Here is one source: http://www.ossc.org/bios/fellows-hawes.htm This biographical note about Roland Hawes mentions his contributions to the development of the (Beckman) "Models IR-2 & IR-3 Infrared Spectrophotometers". Mr. Hawes played an important role, not only at what became Beckman, but at the Applied Physics Corporation, a leading manufacturer of spectrophotometers, that later became the Cary division of Varian Instruments.
I think it is fair to say that manufacturers use terminology in a way that facilitates sales, and which is not necessarily in a way that facilitates an encyclopedic description. In any event, FTIR is an unusual technique that needs to be differentiated from wavelength domain instruments.
If I had to make the distinction on photometry, I think I would focus on measuring the flux of photons, that is the light intensity, in which case I would accept IR as well.
AJim 17:18, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Color Sample folks please make disambiguous
Tons of industries use only the visible portion for color matching with spectophotometers, and specrtaradiometrs(poop how do ya spell this word?) ) to measure light sources. Photons and flux are nice, but let's not get off the subject. I want Spectrophotometers as a separate page from what more of the electromagnetic stuff is about on wiki.
There is a pile of crap in Colorimetry I tried to fix up a bit, but it's still a mess.
Dkroll2----
[edit] NanoDrop
A spectrophotometer with cuvettes is an item in teaching labs/underfunded labs. nowadays a good lab a small machine called a nanodrop. The problem is only one company makes it and I do not want to edit this page and make it look like a publicity. Squidonius
[edit] So how does it work
Its kinda important to knwo how it works scientifically, you know...I have a bio lab I need to do!Tourskin 20:36, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
