Proceedings of the 2017 4th International Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICAEE),

28-30 September, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Development and validation of a low-cost visible

light Spectrophotometer
Md. Ashfaque – E – Alam1, Md. Rakibul Islam2 and Ismat Jabeen Faria3
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)
House 56, Road 4A, Dhanmondi, Dhaka – 1209, Bangladesh
E-mail: ashfaque.alam@ulab.edu.bd1, rakibul.islam1.ete@ulab.edu.bd2, ismat.jabeen.ete@ulab.edu.bd3

Abstract—Spectrophotometry is a key area of research when
it comes to analysis of optic-matter interaction. This paper shows
the development of an affordable visible light spectrophotometer
that can measure absorbance and transmittance of liquid
solutions of various materials within the visible range of
electromagnetic spectrum. The system has a bandwidth of
72.5nm within the visible range. The instrument is verified
usingKMnO4 solutions having different concentrations.
Absorbance values of the solutions are recorded and analyzed
using Origin Pro 8.00 and extinction coefficient of KMnO4 is
calculated to be 2.306 × 10-7Lmol-1cm-1at 525nm. Validity of this
result is verified from previous researches conducted with
commercial UV-Vis spectrophotometers.
Keywords — Spectroscopy; Microcontroller; KMnO4;
Characterization; Absorbance; Beer-Lambert law
I. INTRODUCTION
Originally invented for estimating vitamin content in US
military rations, Spectrophotometer later became one of the
most widely used measuring instruments of all time in various
fields of experimental science. As Nobel laureate chemist
Bruce Merrifeld vowed for Spectrophotometer of being “the
most important instrument ever developed toward the
advancement of bioscience” [1][2]. The instrument is
commonly used in chemical education, biochemistry, chemical
physics and material sciences [3].
Spectrophotometer is a device that characterizes chemical
substances in terms of their capability of absorbing different
parts of electromagnetic spectrum. There are different ranges of
wavelengths those are covered by different types of
spectrophotometers, e.g. IR Spectrophotometer, Visible light
spectrophotometer, UV-Vis spectrophotometer etc. Since the
spectrophotometric method uses the phenomenon of
absorbance of EM spectrum, this is also called Absorption
Spectrophotometry. In academia, this is a commonly taught
topic in introductory undergraduate chemistry, pharmacy,
material catheterization and electronic materials courses [4].
This research aims to develop an inexpensive method of
carrying out absorption spectrophotometric experiments. The
hardware has been developed locally based on the general
construction principle of spectrophotometer. This
spectrophotometer only works in the range of visible light
(420-650nm), hence it has been termed as a Vis-
spectrophotometer [5]. This paper presents the
spectrophotometer to be a portable, microcontroller based,
battery powered system that is capable of taking absorption
data against incident visible wavelength, primarily for liquid
samples. Due to the battery ran system, this device is possible
to be used in load-shedding prone areas.
This system is capable of creating monochromatic visible
light as incident ray and recording the transmitted energy in
form of electrical signal. Arduino microcontroller has been
used to control a stepper motor for selecting monochromatic
wavelength through a handmade slit. The transmitted energy
through the sample is displayed in electrical form in an
attached multimeter. In the case of validating the device, it has
not been possible to directly compare it with any commercially
available Vis or UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Mainly the
unavailability of a commercial device at the lab where this
research took place and high tariff of sample testing from
external labs caused the limitation. Therefore, in order to
validate the correctness of the developed instrument,
previously published absorbance data of Potassium
Permanganate (KMnO4) solution in water at a certain
wavelength has been replicated and compared herewith. The
recorded data have been entered, analyzed and compared using
scientific graphing software Origin Pro 8.00.
II. HARDWARE CONSTRUCTION
This system is a single beam visible light
Spectrophotometer. Therefore, it does not need any beam
splitter or double sample chamber as such [6]. The basic
construction outline consists of a Monochromator focusing a
monochromatic light beam on the sample held in the Sample
holder and a Detector of the transmitted light that may convert
the sensed light intensity into electric form.
Monochromator Sample Detector
Fig. 1. Basic system architecture of the Vis Spectrophotometer
A. Monochromator
The monochromator for this Vis spectrophotometer is
responsible of transmitting a narrow band of visible
wavelength from it. This monochromator consists of an LED

978-1-5386-0869-2/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 653

white light source which irradiates on the reflecting diffraction control the deflection angle (Į) [8]. Moreover, the track pitch
grating constructed using a blank DVD. This has been used in or grating spacing (D) of blank DVD is 0.74μm as per
order to minimize the cost as well as because literature literatures [9] [10]. It is possible to obtain the value of
suggests blank DVDs have uninterrupted lines of grating unlike deflection angle (Į) necessary for certain wavelength (Ȝ),
the encrypted ones [7]. This diffraction grating dissects the following the expression given in Eq. (1)
incident white light into its basic spectrum as per figure 2
depicts. The DVD diffraction grating then is rotated by ‫݊݅ܵܦ‬ሺߙሻ ൌ ݊ߣ (1)
mounting it on a 28BYJ-48- 5V stepper motor. The stepper
motor is controlled by the Arduino Uno microcontroller via a
ULN2003A motor driver board. Two separate push switches
have been used to control the rotation of the stepper motor in
clockwise and anticlockwise direction. Figure 3 shows the
circuit diagram of this system. By rotating the motor, one
specific band of visible wavelength is then selected to be going
through a handmade slit. The slit allows a narrow bandwidth of
spectrum to go out of the monochromator. This outgoing
spectrum is the incident beam on the sample held in sample
holder.

Fig. 2. Basic architecture of Monochromator

Fig. 4. Monochromator set-up

Here, for the optical spectrum first order reflections from the
diffraction grating have been considered. Therefore, n=1 is
taken in Eq. (1). Figure 4 shows the practical set-up of the
monochromator.

Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of the monochromator control
Considering the stride angle of the stepper motor as 5.625 O
the push buttons have been used to rotate the grating and
B. Sample Holder
Incident beam is selected from the monochromator and
passed through a regular 13 mm × 100 mm glass test tube
having an internal diameter of 11mm. The test tube has been
placed in a detachable handmade holder. Every time when a
sample is changed, the test tube is taken out of the holder and
thoroughly dried to avoid polluting the solution by the earlier
residues. Minding the cost factor, curved surfaced test tubes
have been used instead of crystal cuvettes. Hence, probable
dispersion of transmitted light due to surface curvature has
been considered. The detector has been placed at very close
proximity to the sample to avoid this concern.

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Fig. 5. Light-Sample interaction in sample holder.
C. Detector
For detecting the transmitted light energy, a photodiode has
been used. The main factor caused the decision is the response
time. Commercial photodiodes typically have rise-time higher
than that of photoresistors (LDR) [11] [12]. In this system,
shown in the block diagram of figure 6, the photodiode is also
connected to an additional signal amplifier. This amplified
signal is then read on an ammeter in electric form.
A.
Fig. 6. Basic architecture of detector.
B.
Fig. 7. Circuit diagram of (a)LED light source and (b) photodiode circuit
Here, in the figure 7 (b)the circuit configuration of the
detector has been depicted. It shows that the photodiode is
connected to an amplifier circuit for further amplification.
LM741 operational amplifier IC has been used in non-inverting
arrangement for this amplification. The gain expression is
given in the Eq. (2).
655
ோ೑
Gain=1+ (2)
ோభ
The output voltage signal represents the transmitted optical
energy through the sample. It is then put through a 1KŸ
resister and the resultant current-flow is measured using the
digital ammeter connected in series. The circuit diagram in
figure 7 (a) also shows that a 9V battery is used for powering
the white LED used in the monochromator (figure 2) as the
primary light source.

III. EXPERIMENT
An experimental procedure has been designed to verify the
effectiveness of the constructed system. Though, the most
effective validation method would have been to compare the
system with any commercially available visible light
spectrophotometer. But due to lack of access to any such lab
having it, as well as unavailability of fund validation process is
solely based on UV-Vis spectral data for known substances,
published in previous literatures. Therefore, it has been decided
to carry on absorbance measurements according to previous
studies on KMnO4 solutions of different concentrations.
Absorption of visible spectrum by Potassium permanganate
occurs most in case of 500-550nm wavelength [7] [13].
Therefore, absorbance is measured at 525nm (green) of 12
samples and plotted against their respective concentration.
Then, as per the Beer-Lambert law extinction coefficient (‫ )ܭ‬of
KMnO4 is calculated and compared with previously measured
values at 525nm.
Sample Preparation
A stock solution for standards was prepared by pouring
0.10g of KMnO4 in standard 250mlbottle of distilled water.
Standard working solutions which contain respectively 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6,7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 40 mgL-1 of potassium permanganate
were made by dilution of appropriate aliquots of the stock
solution to 200ml with distilled water following Eq. (3)
CsVs = CwVw (3)
Where, Cs= Concentration of the stock solution=400mgL-1,
Vs = Required volume of the stock solution, Cw =
Concentration of the working solution and Vw = Volume of the
working solution = 200ml.
Beer-Lambert Law
Being the ratio between transmitted power of light through
a sample (PT) and incident power of light (P0) on the sample,
transmittance (T) can also be represented by either the voltage
ratio caused by the transmitted and incident wavelength or by
the current ratio caused by transmitted and incident wavelength
in a transducer. It can therefore be written that,
௉೅
Transmittance, ܶ =
௉బ
௏೅ ூ೅
= or,
௏బ ூబ
 ଵ
Ö A = ݈‫݃݋‬ଵ଴ ቀ ቁ
்
௉
= ݈‫݃݋‬ଵ଴ ቀ బ ቁ
௉೅
ூ
= ݈‫݃݋‬ଵ଴ ቀ బ ቁ (4)
ூ೅

Therefore, absorbance (A) is measured from Eq. (4) by

first, recording the current reading on the connected ammeter
while only distilled water sample is in the sample holder (I0),
and then recording the current reading while any of the
working solution is in the sample holder (IT).
Once the absorbance of all the KMnO4 solutions having
different concentrations are measured at 525nm and plotted on
a graph, slop of the curve indicates the ‫ܭ‬l product for potassium
permanganate at 525μm. According to Beer-Lambert Law as
per Eq. (5).
Fig. 8. Transmittance vs Concentration plot for KMnO4 solution at 525nm
A = ‫ܭ‬lc (5)
Where, ‫ = ܭ‬extinction coefficient and l = path length
travelled by the incident beam= internal diameter of the test
tube = 11mm = 1.1 cm, the extinction coefficient is measured
for further comparison and analysis.

IV. ANALYSIS AND VALIDATION

Measurements taken accordingly, of all the 12 samples
along with the zero-concertation sample gave data with
performance characteristics of the spectrophotometer system.
Table I shows the varying signal outputs from the detector (I0
and IT) as well as the calculated transmittance and absorbance
values.
TABLE I. TRANSMITTANCE AND ABSORBANCE DATA FOR
KMNO4 AT 525NM
Fig. 9. Absorption vs Concentration plot for KMnO4 solution at 525nm
C I0 (mA) IT Transmittance Absorbance
(mgL-1) (mA) T= IT/I0 (log10 1/T) Plotting the absorbance values vs concertation, figure 9
0 0.211 1 0 depicts the linear relationship giving a slope of 0.04026 along
1 0.182 0.862559242 0.065 with an intercept of 0.02527. The slope represents the value of
‫ܭ‬l product, from where ‫( ܭ‬molar absorptivity) is calculated
2 0.166 0.786729858 0.104
considering the value of path length, l = 1.1cm as discussed
3 0.156 0.739336493 0.131 previously. Therefore, at 525nm the molar absorptivity of
4 0.146 0.691943128 0.177 KMnO4is, 0.03645 Lmg-1cm-1 or, 2.306 × 10-7Lmol-1cm-1. The
curve fitting for the Normal calibration (fig.8) gave a linear
5 0.129 0.611374408 0.211 model with the least R -squared (R2) value of 0.9964 with a
0.211
6 0.116 0.549763033 0.26 standard deviation of 0.0007.
7 0.098 0.464454976 0.331 The results of the study agree with literatures previously
8 0.092 0.436018957 0.36
formed using commercial UV-Vis spectrophotometers [5] [15].
The resolution of the system is undetermined due to the
9 0.087 0.412322275 0.378 limitation of ability to prepare samples with lower
10 0.075 0.355450237 0.451 concentration than that of what has been used. This low cost
visible light spectrophotometric system demonstrates capability
20 0.027 0.127962085 0.89 in measuring transmittance and absorbance of samples at given
40 0.005 0.023696682 1.601 wavelengths, hence is validated without having access to any
sophisticated laboratory set-up. Table II shows list of the
components along with their price in the local market. Total
Here, Transmittance vs concentration graph in figure 8 cost of construction for this spectrophotometer is
illustrates an exponential relationship which supports the approximately 21.9 USD as per the most recent rate of
proposal of Beer-Lambert law [14]. currency conversion.

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spectral LED as light sources as well as commercial gratings to
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stride angle may improve the bandwidth of the device as well.

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