Constructing an Affordable Spectrophotometer with Your Smartphone

What is a sprectrophotometer?
The spectrophotometer, a device tracing its roots to the optical laws of Lambert, Beer, and Bouguer dating back to 1729, measures the spectrum received from a light source. Its applications have evolved from basic optical principles, extending into increasingly futuristic technologies.

This article aims to guide readers in constructing an economical spectroscopic device for educational purposes using a battery, a high-intensity LED, a smartphone with a camera, and free spectroscopic analysis software.

Building the Device:
Start by connecting a high-intensity white LED to a button cell battery, optionally, you can create a small circuit with a switch or simply secure the components with insulating tape.

Prepare a transparent container for the liquid sample to be analyzed, such as a cuvette with a variable optical path from 1 mm to 10 cm.

Diffraction Grating:
The crucial component is the diffraction grating, which…