Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dr. V. Krishnakumar
Professor and Head
Department of Physics
Periyar University
Salem. Tamilnadu
India
UV Spectroscopy
I. Introduction
A. UV radiation and Electronic Excitations
1. The difference in energy between molecular bonding, non-bonding
and anti-bonding orbitals ranges from 125-650 kJ/mole
Visible
Spectrum
Transparent material
Diffraction prism
that absorbs some
radiation
Radiation source
If, having passed through the material, the beam is diffracted by passing through a prism it will produce
a light spectrum that has gaps in it (caused by the absorption of radiation by the transparent material
through which is passed).
The effect of absorption of radiation on the transparent material is to change is from a low energy state
(called the ground state) to a higher energy state (called the excited state).
The difference between all the spectroscopic techniques is that they use different wavelength radiation
that has different associated energy which can cause different modes of excitation in a molecule.
For instance, with infra red spectroscopy the low energy radiation simply causes bonds to bend and
stretch when a molecule absorbs the radiation. With high energy UV radiation the absorption of energy
causes transition of bonding electrons from a low energy orbital to a higher energy orbital.
The energy of the ‘missing’ parts of the spectrum corresponds exactly to the energy difference between
the orbitals involved in the transition.
Energy transitions
The bonding orbitals with which you are familiar are the -bonding
*
Unoccupied
orbitals typified by simple alkanes. These are low energy (that is,
stable).
Energy * Next (in terms of increasing energy) are the -bonding orbitals
Increasing energy
present in all functional groups that contain double and triple bonds
Levels (e.g. carbonyl groups and alkenes).
Higher energy still are the non-bonding orbitals present on atoms
that have lone pair(s) of electrons (oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and
n halogen containing compounds).
All of the above 3 kinds of orbitals may be occupied in the ground
Occupie state.
d Energy
Two other sort of orbitals, called antibonding orbitals, can only be
occupied by an electron in an excited state (having absorbed UV for
instance). These are the * and * orbitals (the * denotes
Levels antibonding). Although you are not too familiar with the concept of
an antibonding orbital just remember the following – whilst electron
density in a bonding orbital is a stabilising influence it is a
destabilising influence (bond weakening) in an antibonding orbital.
Antibonding orbitals are unoccupied in the ground state
UV
Observed electronic transitions
s*
Unoccupied levels
p*
Occupied levels
p
s
Molecular orbitals
Observed electronic transitions
s*
s s* alkanes
p*
s p* carbonyls
p p* unsaturated cmpd
Energy
n
n s* O, N, S, halogens
n p* carbonyls
p
s
Selection Rules
Disassociation
R1 - Rn
V4
R1 - Rn
V3
R1 - Rn
V2
E1
R1 - Rn
V1
R1 - Rn
Vo
Disassociation
Energy R1- R n
V4
R1 - Rn
V3
R1 - Rn
V2
R1 - Rn
V1
E0
R1 - Rn
Vo
Beer’s Law
• Based on absorption of light by a sample
– dPx/Px=dS/S
• dS/S=ratio of absorbance area to total area
– Proportional to number of absorbing particles
• dS=adn
– a is a constant, dn is number of particles
– n is total number of particles within a sample
x
P n
dP adn
Po
Px 0 S
Po an
ln
P S
Po an
log
P 2.303S
Beer’s Law
• Area S can be described by volume and length
Po anb
– S=V/b (cm2) log
– Substitute for S P 2.303V
– n/V = concentration
– Substitute concentration and collect constant into single term e
– Atot=SAx
The Instrumentation
The instrumentation used to run a UV is shown below. It involves two lamps (one for visible
light and one for UV light) and a series of mirrors and prisms as well as an appropriate detector.
The spectrometer effectively varies the wavelength of the light directed through a sample from
high wavelength (low energy) to low wavelength (high energy).
As it does so any chemical dissolved in a sample cell through which the light is passing may
undergo electronic transitions from the ground state to the excited state when the incident
radiation energy is exactly the same as the energy difference between these two states. A
recorder is then used to record, on a suitable scale, the absorption of energy that occurs at each
of the wavelengths through which the spectrometer scans.
The recorder
assembly
The spectrometer itself – this houses the
lamps, mirrors, prisms and detector. The
spectrometer splits the beam of radiation into
two and passes one through a sample and one
through a reference solution (that is always
made up of the solvent in which you have
dissolved the sample). The detector measures
the difference between the sample and
reference readings and communicates this to
the recorder.
The samples are dissolved in a solvent which is transparent to UV light and put into sample
cells called cuvettes. The cells themselves also have to be transparent to UV light and are
accurately made in all dimensions. They are normally designed to allow the radiation to pass
through the sample over a distance of 1cm.
Instrumentation
• Light source
– Deuterium and hydrogen lamps
– W filament lamp
– Xe arc lamps
• Sample containers
– Cuvettes
• Plastic
• Glass
• Quartz
Instrumentation
log(I0/I) = A
UV-VIS sources I0 I
sample
200 700
detector
l, nm
monochromator/
reference
3. As with the dispersive IR, the lamps illuminate the entire band of
UV or visible light; the monochromator (grating or prism)
gradually changes the small bands of radiation sent to the beam
splitter
Diode array
UV-VIS sources
sample
Polychromator
– entrance slit and dispersion device
Sample Handling
9. The more non-polar the solvent, the better (this is not always
possible)
The Spectrum
2. Due to the lack of any fine structure, spectra are rarely shown in
their raw form, rather, the peak maxima are simply reported as a
numerical list of “lamba max” values or lmax
NH2
lmax = 206 nm
O O 252
317
376
The Spectrum
3. It can be used to assay (via max and molar absorptivity) the proper
irradiation wavelengths for photochemical experiments, or the
design of UV resistant paints and coatings
A. Color
1. General
• The portion of the EM spectrum from 400-800 is observable
to humans- we (and some other mammals) have the
adaptation of seeing color at the expense of greater detail
• Consider b-carotene
• Likewise:
O
H
N
N
H
O
indigo
N N
EWGs EDGs
NO2
HO
O3S N N
N H2N N N
N
OH NH2
SO3