For quartz, a little extra budget is needed, but you also get a larger transmission range of 190 to 2,500 nm. Although plastic buckets can only be reused a few times, they are cost-effective. Because glass and quartz are reusable materials, they can be properly cleaned and maintained to extend their lifespan. If, on the other hand, they are organic solvents, glass quartz veins have the preferred option, since they show greater strength compared to variants of plastic. If you want to choose one, you need to define the specific use and equipment. For example, plastic may not be efficient for UV range experiments, but it is a cost-effective alternative to all visible light studies.
1, 5 and 10 mm are common, although shorter and longer route lengths are used for special purposes. A standard 10mm bucket has exactly 10mm between the inner walls of the bin, giving a sample path length of 10mm. This precise value is used as the length of the sample path in the calculation of the beer law to determine the concentrations of the solution. For UV-based absorption, you are expected to use only quartz veins. However, for measuring absorption in the visible area, glass, plastic and quartz semimers are acceptable. The wavelengths of the bucket to be used are determined by the material of the bucket.
Sufficient transmission is important for the bucket so that dimming light to the transparent walls of the cell does not have a negative effect on the measurement result. In addition to the standard length of the spectrometer bucket path of 10 mm, the dimensions can vary from 1 mm to 100 mm or more. Light paths shorter spectrophotometer cuvettes than 1 mm are available, but are for more specialized buckets, such as detachable cells or HPLC flow cells. It is not recommended to use plastic buckets on UV fish spectrometers. Technically, any standard 10×10mm bucket can be used, but you need to know the material and transmission profile before doing so.
All these materials seem absolutely clear and suitable for all kinds of absorption studies at first glance. However, each material has different light-absorbing properties and it is vital to take these optical characteristics into account when choosing a bucket material. The most popular UV fish buckets refer to buckets with rectangular test tubes, made of quartz material, for use in UV visspectroscopic measuring systems. They are used, like standard test tubes, to store aqueous solutions.
Common laboratory absorption studies cover liquids, either as pure solvents or as solutions of light-absorbing compounds in transparent solvents. Such studies are possible by using containers with precise dimensions, usually a trajectory length of 10 mm, which are transparent at the wavelength of light needed for the purpose. Fingerprints and water droplets interrupt light rays during the measurement, so gauze or a layer of lint cloth can be used to clean the outer surface of a bucket before use. Mild detergent or ethanol can be applied, followed by rinsing with tap water.
Cuvettes f and g are examples of non-standard size cuvettes, which are also called short-path length cuvettes. The length of the pad and the external size are smaller than standard buckets. In such cases, a long-distance gearbox would be a much simpler and more effective solution. Buckets with a length over long paths with optical path lengths of 20 mm, 30 mm, 40 mm, 50 mm and 100 mm are available.
Bucket cells are used to store liquid samples for spectroscopic measurements. Some simple spectrometers use round cuvettes for quick measurements, but square cuvettes are required for accurate concentration determination. When looking for an absorption measurement in a UV-Vis spectrophotometer, selecting a suitable container is essential, because each bucket material has its own advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the application of UV spectroscopy, the material is chosen. The solution should be placed in the path of light of a photometer.
Plastic buckets have the advantage of being less expensive and disposable and are often used in rapid spectroscopic tests. Quartz and glass buckets are used when it comes to organic solvents, which have a higher strength compared to plastic types. In general, quartz and glass buckets exhibit greater transparency and measurement accuracy and can be reused many times over plastic buckets. Therefore, quartz sample holders are required for UV research because quartz is transparent to most UV light.
The most common type of bucket is square, with external dimensions of 12.5 x 12.5 mm. This format is suitable for sample volumes from the micro-litre range (micro-ultramicro buckets) to the milliliter range. The standard path length of a bucket measures 10 mm; however, buckets are also available that provide a shorter light path through the sample.
Sometimes very little sample is available for research and shorter path lengths of only 1 mm are needed. Where quantification is required, the absorption values shall be kept within the dynamic range of the instrument below 1. This is because an absorption of 1 implies that the sample absorbed 90% of the incident light, or is indicated as 10% of the incident light was let through the sample. With so little light reaching the detector, some UV-Vis spectrophotometers are not sensitive enough to reliably quantify small amounts of light.