Thermo Genesis 180 Spectrometers

Instrument

Teaching Labs has six Thermo Genesis 180 spectrophotometers. These are dual beam spectrometers and are mainly used for recording scanning spectra of solutions although they can also perform kinetic and photometric measurements.

Photo of Thermo genesis 180 spectrometer

Specification

Beam type 

Dual 

Cuvette size

Standard 1 cm pathlength cuvettes

Wavelength range

1100 - 190 nm (cuvette dependent)

Maximum resolution

0.1 nm

Wavelength accuracy

± 0.5 nm

Photometric limits

–3 to + 5 Abs 

 Preferred photometric range

0 to 1.5 Abs 

Temperature range (with Peltier)

+20 to +60 °C

Use

Scanning Mode

Recording scanning spectra of solutions is the main role of the Thermo Genesis 180 spectrophotometers. These are dual-beam instruments enabling any fluctuations in the light source during scanning to be cancelled out. Often a scanning spectrum will be recorded in order to determine the wavelength of maximum absorbance (λmax) which can then be used for photometric or kinetic measurements. Scanning spectra are also used to provide characterisation data for a compound.


Photometric Mode

Photometric mode is used to record absorbance values at a given wavelength. As absorbance is related to concentration through the Beer-Lambert law (A =  ε c l), the concentration of a solution can be determined through the use of standards and recording a set of measurements in photometric mode.


Kinetics Mode

Kinetic mode is used to record the absorbance at a given wavelength as a function of time. This allows the study of reaction rates for reactions which have starting material(s) or product(s) having an absorbance within the range of the spectrophotometer.

Instructions  

Scanning spectra

Thermo Genesis 180 UV Instructions - Scanning (PDF) ↓


Kinetics

Please contact a technician for training.


Photometrics

Please contact a technician for training.

Accessing data

Data is available in the UVS folders. The default filename is in the format yymmdd_hhmmss.

pdf

An automatically generated processed file containg a spectrum and any peak pick information. 

csv

A text format consisting of absorbance values against wavelength. These can be imported into spreadsheet applications for analysis. 

dx

A human readable text format consisting of absorbance versus wavelength data, along with header information containing spectrum paramters. These files  can be viewed in text editors, imported into spreadsheet programs, or imported directly into reprocessing software such as ACD/Spectrus. 

dsp

Proprietary spectrum file format for VISIONlite software.

rra

Proprietary kinetics file format for VISIONlite software.

rfx

Proprietary photometric file format for VISIONlite software.

Videos

Thermo Genesis 180 - Recording a scanning spectrum