Background/Applications: Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular holidays both nationally and globally. The holiday of romance as we know it began around the 14th century as a celebration of love and a time to give affectionate greetings and gifts, the most popular of which being beautiful-smelling flowers or sweet-tasting chocolates. While the term…
Read MoreOptical emission spectroscopy is a powerful tool for monitoring plasmas in situ, enabling process optimization and control. It is used to measure the energy difference between excited and ground states of neutral atoms and molecules and can help to precisely control the parameters of the plasma to maintain stable, reliable, and reproducible processes. Avantes multichannel…
Read MoreBackground/Applications: Each year, many people make New Year’s resolutions which are personal goals or commitments that a person makes for the New Year, often related to self-improvement. One of the most common resolutions is losing weight or generally having a healthier diet. To maintain eating healthier, many individuals will replace high-calorie soft drinks with sugar-free…
Read MoreInfrared and Raman are both categorized as vibrational spectroscopies, which broadly speaking, measure the same basic material properties. Namely, they provide a molecular fingerprint by determining the vibrational energy levels of a given material. The term fingerprint, in this case, is used to highlight the fact that for two materials to have the same vibrational…
Read MoreBackground/Applications: Chlorophyll is the essential pigment that allows plants to absorb energy from light. It absorbs light most strongly in the blue and red portions of the visible spectrum and weakest in the green portions of the spectrum, which gives it its recognizable green color. Detection of chlorophyll dates back to the early 19th century…
Read MoreBackground/Applications: Fluorescence spectroscopy can be used in a wide range of applications from medical, to fraud detection, and food safety. For example, in medical applications, fluorescence is being used to distinguish between healthy and cancerous tissues. In the realm of fraud and counterfeit detection, fluorescent markers are being implanted in products ranging from fuel to…
Read MoreRoundup Experiment In this experiment, we tested low concentrations of glyphosate with a special variable path length dip probe with a narrow tip to measure the chemical’s absorbance. We tested the dip probe with a path length of 10mm and 5mm to also measure the limit of detection for the lower concentrations. As path length…
Read MoreIn this experiment, we tested the color change of three pH indications from a basic initial state to an acidic final state. The three indicators used were universal indicators, bromocresol green, and phenol red. Dry ice was used to increase the acidity of these solutions. Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide, and…
Read MoreBackground/Applications: Anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments that are responsible for the red, purple, and blue coloring in fruits and vegetables. The colored anthocyanins are used as natural food colorants, and as potential pharmaceutical ingredients that give various health benefits. Anthocyanins possess antibacterial and antioxidative qualities that have the ability to improve visual and neurological health and…
Read MoreBackground/Applications: Human skin measurements apply to many industries and field studies with differing analyses in absorbance, transmission, and or reflectance. In this experiment, we tested the absorbance and reflectance of skin samples to analyze skin pigmentation and protein structures. The skin pigmentation studied in this experiment was melanin. Melanin is mainly located in the epidermis…
Read More
My Cart 