3D printing has the potential to enhance chemistry education in fundamental ways. One particularly active area is the development of 3D-printable analytical chemistry equipment. Such technologies are attractive because they offer new ways for students to engage in instrument design and fabrication. They also can lower costs and increase accessibility, but the current challenge is to balance these benefits with increased accuracy and ease of use. In this talk I will present the DualSpec, a visible absorption spectrophotometer with a 3D-printable base and inexpensive optical components. The device has a novel dual-beam optical geometry which allows a sample and reference spectrum to be collected on a single photograph. This approach is the first DIY version of the double beam geometry that has long been used in some commercial spectrophotometers. The device also incorporates a simple, “universal”, connection system which makes it compatible with android and iOS phones and adaptable to future smartphone form factors. These two innovations make the DualSpec viable as an open-source alternative for common laboratory assays using visible absorbance as the readout. For example, we show that remarkably clean kinetic data can be collected with the device in the default movie mode of an iOS phone. We also expect that both of the new design features will be adaptable to new DIY devices being developed for a variety of applications.<br/>

Increasing accessibility and analytical accuracy in 3D-printable smartphone spectrophotometers

2019 Fall National Meeting

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