Method Development and Validation of an Home-Built Open-Source Spectrophotometer
Department
Other
Advisor
Rachel Anderson
Location
Bethel University
Document Type
Poster
Abstract
Given the explosive increase in cheap and reliable retail-grade 3D printers along with the development of microprocessors for home use, there has been a parallel interest in the development of lab-usable and validated scientific equipment. Open-source developers and creators report cost savings, as compared to retail equivalent equipment, of between 75-95% (Pereira, 2019). Additionally, the availability of these tools to build sophisticated scientific equipment has provided great opportunities for novices and trained scientists alike to explore topics such as method development and validation, performance characteristics, and geometric constraints, which serve to demystify the “black box” of chemistry instrumentation. This work seeks to report on recent updates to a previously reported modular and open-source smartphone spectrophotometer (Winters, 2021) by developing and validating methods for visible spectroscopy using an everyday kitchen chemical: food coloring. The method development process will include comparing said open-source instrument with retail equipment, such as research grade Perkin-Elmer, instructional grade Perkin-Elmer, and Ocean Optics instruments (PE-R, PE-I, OO respectively) and validating it using a set of parameters including limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) to name a few (Uhorvčík, 2013). Results and the future of this open-source spectrophotometer, displayed in figure 1, will be discussed at length.
Recommended Citation
Hahn, Joshua; O'Neal, Erin; Marchan, Vivian; and Winters, Brandon, "Method Development and Validation of an Home-Built Open-Source Spectrophotometer" (2024). Science Symposium. 1.
https://spark.bethel.edu/science_symposium/spring2024/schedule2024/1
Method Development and Validation of an Home-Built Open-Source Spectrophotometer
Bethel University
Given the explosive increase in cheap and reliable retail-grade 3D printers along with the development of microprocessors for home use, there has been a parallel interest in the development of lab-usable and validated scientific equipment. Open-source developers and creators report cost savings, as compared to retail equivalent equipment, of between 75-95% (Pereira, 2019). Additionally, the availability of these tools to build sophisticated scientific equipment has provided great opportunities for novices and trained scientists alike to explore topics such as method development and validation, performance characteristics, and geometric constraints, which serve to demystify the “black box” of chemistry instrumentation. This work seeks to report on recent updates to a previously reported modular and open-source smartphone spectrophotometer (Winters, 2021) by developing and validating methods for visible spectroscopy using an everyday kitchen chemical: food coloring. The method development process will include comparing said open-source instrument with retail equipment, such as research grade Perkin-Elmer, instructional grade Perkin-Elmer, and Ocean Optics instruments (PE-R, PE-I, OO respectively) and validating it using a set of parameters including limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) to name a few (Uhorvčík, 2013). Results and the future of this open-source spectrophotometer, displayed in figure 1, will be discussed at length.