• Question: What does Spectroscopy actually do?

    Asked by SilentSwiftwave to Rebecca, Andrew on 7 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Matt, Megankelly.
    • Photo: Rebecca Ingle

      Rebecca Ingle answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      The technical definition of spectroscopy is ‘the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter.’ In reality, this just means shining light (normally laser light) on molecules that are solids, liquids or gases and seeing what happens.

      Spectroscopy is a really important experimental technique. You can use light to tell you what chemicals you have present in a sample, which is probably the most common use of spectroscopy. It’s popular for monitoring what chemicals are in our atmosphere even how quickly chemical reactions happen (if there’s a colour change you can track how fast that colour change occurs using UV-vis spectroscopy.)

      For me though, the coolest thing about spectroscopy is actually better understanding exactly what molecules are and how reactions happen. With modern lasers, you can actually see exactly how molecules move around and how really quick reactions happen.

    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      In brief terms, “spectroscopy” allows us to use light to probe the workings of molecules. It helps us to identify the molecule (sometimes it doesn’t come in a nicely labelled bottle!), to measure parameters inside the molecule (bond lengths), it can show us how the molecule interacts with other molecules. It really is one of the most powerful tools that we have to know what is going on at the molecular level.

      Plus you get to play with big expensive bits of kit – and who doesn’t like that!

Comments