Analytical Absorption Spectrophotometry in the Visible and Ultraviolet

Book excerpt: Despite the existence of many competitive analytical techniques, molecular absorption spectrophotometry still remains very popular in practice, particularly in biochemical, clinical, organic, agricultural, food and environmental analyses. This is due mainly to the inherent ease and relative simplicity of spectrophotometric procedures and the availability of reliable and highly-automated instruments. Moreover, the method and its instrumentation has recently undergone considerable development resulting in some new special approaches of spectrophotometry in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible (VIS) regions.Although there are a number of comprehensive textbooks dealing with UV/VIS spectrophotometry, they tend to describe historical aspects or contain collections of detailed procedures for the determination of analytes and do not reflect sufficiently the present state of the method and stage of development reached. This book provides a concise survey of the actual state-of-the-art of UV/VIS spectrophotometry.Special attention has been paid to problems with the Bouguer-Lambert-Beer law, absorption spectra, present trends in instrumentation, errors in spectrophotometry, evaluation of analyte concentration and calibration, optimization procedures, multicomponent analysis, differential spectrophotometries, problem of blanks, derivative and dual-wavelength spectrophotometry, spectrophotometric titration, the strong relations between complex formation and spectrophotometry, spectrophotometric investigation of complex equilibria and stoichiometry or automation in spectrophotometry. The significance of spectrophotometry in connection with liquid-liquid extraction, reaction kinetics, trace analysis, environmental and clinical analysis is also covered.The text is supported by tables and figures, and numerous references are provided for each topic treated. The book is written for all those who use UV/VIS spectrophotometry in the laboratory and will also be useful to students as supplementary reading.