How to Use a UV-Vis Spectrometer

Learn about the three types of cuvettes used in UV-Vis spectrometry: plastic cuvettes for aqueous solutions, glass cuvettes for the visible range, and quartz cuvettes for the UV range. Understand that all cuvettes have clear and frosted sides, and you must only touch the frosted side to avoid affecting light transmission.

Add either one drop of liquid product or a few crystals of solid sample to a cuvette, then fill the rest with solvent. Mix the solution using a clean pipet by drawing the solution in and dispensing it back until homogeneous. If too concentrated, dilute by pouring half the solution into a waste container and refilling with solvent.

Power on the UV-Vis spectrometer and turn on the computer monitor. Open the CarryUV software and select the Scan option to begin configuring the experiment parameters.

Enter the Setup menu and set the wavelength range from 900 nm to 360 nm for a visible trial. Navigate to the Baseline Tab, enable baseline correction, and confirm the settings.

Fill two cuvettes with solvent only, clean the clear sides with a Kim wipe, and insert them into positions 1 and 7 of the spectrometer. Close the lid and run the baseline scan when prompted to establish the 100% reference.

Remove the blank cuvettes using the silver eject knob. Clean your sample cuvette and insert it into position 1 (and confirm position 7 is pressed down). Close the lid and press Start to collect the sample data.

Press Finish when data collection is complete. Adjust the graph scale to visualize the peaks of interest, use the Peak Labels feature to identify the X-Y coordinates of important peaks, and print the graph with the compound structure included.

Exit the software, turn off the computer monitor, and return to the spectrometer. Eject the sample cuvettes using the silver button, remove them, close the lid, and turn off the spectrometer. Place all cuvettes in the appropriate waste bin.