Viking Spectrophotometer: A Home-Built, Simple, and Cost-Efficient Absorption and Fluorescence Spectrophotometer for Education in Chemistry

Investigating the optical properties of various chemical compounds using UV–vis spectrophotometers is an essential part education in chemistry. However, commercial are usually treated as “magic black boxes”, where dominant majority elements hidden “under hood”. This often limits understanding mechanisms behind generation spectral curves, which turn may impede ability to understand limitations applied method and, some cases, interpret acquired data. In addition, study emission phenomena fluorescence seldom implemented educational laboratories due practical challenges and costs devices, severely limit pedagogic access this topic. For students be more confident with these two basic spectroscopy techniques, we have developed a laboratory kit that provides multifaceted learning experience. Starting exploration instrument assembly, it teaches, for example, such technical concepts resolution detection sensitivity. More fundamentally, enables deeper Beer–Lambert law notion Stokes shift. The spectrophotometer built from cost-efficient materials easily scalable, making affordable many laboratories. Due modular design, adaptable levels has been successfully during high school-, undergraduate-, graduate-level classes.