instructables

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons

by stoppi71

Hello! examined is placed in the beam path and again

Liquids or other objects appear colored because they
reflect or transmit certain colors and in turn swallow
(absorb) others. With a so-called photometer, those
colors (wavelengths) can be determined, which are
absorbed by liquids. The basic principle is simple:
with a LED of a certain color you first shine through a
cuvette filled with water or another solvent. A
photodiode measures the incoming light intensity and
converts it into a proportional voltage U0. This value
is noted. Thereafter, a cuvette with the liquid to be
measures the light intensity or voltage U. The
transmission factor in percent is then simply
calculated by T = U / U0 * 100. To get the absorption-
factor A you just have to calculate A = 100 minus T.
This measurement is repeated with differently colored
LEDs and determines in each case T or A as a
function of the wavelength (color). If you do this with
enough LEDs, you get an absorption curve.

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 1

Step 1: The Parts

For the photometer you need the following parts: * 6 resistors with 100, 1k, 10k, 100k, 1M and 10M
ohms: ebay resistors

* A black case with the dimensions 160 x 100 x 70 * an I²C 16x2 display: ebay 16x2 display
mm or similar: housing
* a 2x6 rotary switch: rotary switch
* An Arduino Nano: ebay arduino nano
* a 9V battery holder and a 9V battery: battery holder
* An operational amplifier LF356: ebay LF356
* a switch: switch
* 3 capacitors with a capacity of 10 F: ebay capacito
rs * Glass cuvettes: ebay cuvettes

* 2 capacitors with C = 100nF and a capacitor with * LEDs with different color: f.e. ebay LEDs
1nF: ebay capacitors
* a simple 0-15V power supply to power the LEDs
* One voltage inverter ICL7660: ebay ICL7660
* wood for the cuvette-holder
* One photodiode BPW34: ebay BPW34 photodiode

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 2

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 3
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 4
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 5
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 6
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 7
Step 2: The Circuit and the Arduino-code

The circuit for the photometer is very simple. It
consists of a photodiode, an operational amplifier, a
voltage-inverter and some other parts (resistors,
switches, capacitors). The principle of this type of
circuit is to convert the (low) current from the
photodiode into a higher voltage, which can be read
by the arduino nano. The multiplication-factor is
determined by the value of the resistor in the
feedback of the OPA. To be more flexible I took 6
different resistors, which can be chosen with the
rotary switch. The lowest "magnification" is 100, the
highest 10 000 000. Everything is powered by a
single 9V battery.

Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FPG/T2KD/JVE7OL13/FPGT2KDJVE7OL13.ino
…

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 8

Step 3: First Experiment: the Absorption-curve of Chlorophyll

For the measuring procedure: A cuvette is filled with achieve as even coverage of the wavelength range
water or another from 395nm to 850nm.
transparent solvent. This is then placed in the
photometer. The cuvette is being covered with a light- For the first experiment with the photometer I chose
tight lid. Now set the power supply for the LED so that chlorophyll. But for this you’ll have to pluck grass
a current of about 10-20mA flows through the LED. from a meadow hoping that no one is watching you ...
After that, use the rotary switch to select the position
at which the output voltage of the photodiode is This grass is then cut into small pieces and put
around 3-4V. The fine tuning of the output voltage can together with propanol or ethanol in a pot. Now you
still be done with the adjustable power supply. This crush the leaves with a mortar or a fork. After a few
voltage U0 is noted. Then take the cuvette containing minutes, the chlorophyll has dissolved nicely in the
the liquid to be examined and place it in the propanol. This solution is still too strong. It needs to
photometer. At this point the voltage of the power be diluted with sufficient propanol. And to avoid any
supply and the position of the rotary switch must suspended the solution has to be filtered. I took a
remain unchanged! Then cover the cuvette again with common coffee-filter.
the lid and measure the voltage U. For the
transmission T in percent the value is T = U / U0 * The result should look like as shown in the picture. A
100. To get the absorption coefficient A you just have very translucent green-yellowish solution. Then you
to calculate A = 100 - T. repeat the measurement (U0, U) with each LED. As it
can be seen from the obtained absorption curve,
I bought the different colored LEDs from Roithner theory and measurement agree quite well.
Lasertechnik which is located in austria, my home Chlorophyll a + b absorbs very strongly in the blue
country. For these, the respective wavelength is given and red spectral range, while green-yellow and
in nanometers. To be really sure one can check the infrared light can penetrate the solution almost
dominant wavelength with a spectroscope and the unhindered. In the infrared range, the absorption is
Theremino software (theremino spectrometer). In my even close to zero.
case, the data in nm agreed with the measurements
quite good. When selecting the LEDs, you should

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 9

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 10
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 11
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 12
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 13
Step 4: Second Experiment: the Dependence of the Extinction on the Concentration of
Potassium Permanganate
As a further experiment, the determination of the
extinction depending on
the concentration of the solute offers. As a solute, I
use potassium permanganate. The light intensity after
penetrating the solution follows the Lambert-Beer law:
It reads I = I0 * 10 ^ (- E). I0 is the intensity without
solute, I the intensity with solute and E the so-called
extinction. This extinction E depends (linearly) on the
thickness x of the cuvette and on the concentration c
of the solute. Thus, E = k * c * x with k as the molar
absorption coefficient. To determine the extinction E
you just need I and I0, because E = lg (I0 / I). When
the intensity is reduced to, for example, 10%, the
extinction E = 1 (10 ^ -1). With a weakening to only
1%, E = 2 (10 ^ -2).
If one applies E as a function of the concentration c,
we would expect to obtain a rising straight line
through the zero point.
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 14
As you can see from my extinction curve, it is not
linear. At higher concentrations, it flattens, specifically
from concentrations greater than 0.25. This means
that the extinction is lower than would be expected
according to the Lambert-Beer law. However,
considering only lower concentrations, for example
between 0 and 0.25, results in a very nice linear
relationship between the concentration c and the
extinction E. In this range, the unknown concentration
c can be determined from the measured extinction E.
In my case, the concentration has only arbitrary units,
since I have not determined the initial amount of
dissolved potassium permanganate (it has been only
milligrams, which couldn’t be measured with my
kitchen-scale in my case, dissolved in 4 ml water for
the starting solution).
DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 15
Step 5: Conclusions

This photometer is particularly suitable for physics a lot...

and chemistry lessons.
The total cost is only around 60 Euro = 70 USD. The
different colored LEDs are the most expensive part.
On ebay or aliexpress you will certainly find cheaper
LEDs but usually you do not know which wavelengths
the LEDs have. Seen in this way, purchasing from a
specialist retailer is recommended.
So have fun also making this project in your lesson
and Eureka!
Last but not least I'd be very happy if you could vote
for me in the classroom-science-contest. Thank's for
that...

In this lesson you learn something about the relation And if you are interested in further physics
between the colour of liquids and their absorption- experiments, here's my youtube-channel:
behavior, about the important Chlorophyll, the
Lambert-Beer law, exponentials, transmission and https://www.youtube.com/user/stopperl16/videos?
absorption, calculation of percents and the
wavelengths of the visible colours. I think this is quite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoVuUctSyBE

Hello. Very nice job. As you wrote RGB are just three wavelength LEDs, and colors we see are
just a perception. Which colors (or wavelength, it's better) do you advice to use?
Hi! You can see those LEDs I'm using for this photometer in the pictures. I've bought them from
Roithner Lasertechnik, located in vienna (austria). With those LEDs I cover the whole spectrum
from 400nm to 850nm well. I tried to have just 20-30nm gaps between the wavelengths. On ebay
you get 850nm IR, 395nm UV and some others. But f.e. I haven't found 5mm LEDs with lambda
between 660 and 760nm. For these LEDs a Laser-LED-company would be the right choice. There
are some companies like Roithner Lasertechnik in the USA for sure...
Thank you for your advice. Since I'm in Italy, Austria should be my best choice. Of course you got
my vote. Keep going on this way.
A GREAT JOB.. THANKS FOR SHARING.. GOT MY VOTE!..

thank's a lot ;-)

Very nice project indeed. It will be very helpful if you may be able to demonstrate it on Youtube!!

Hello! You can see the way how to use it on youtube, just look at the video at the end...

Nice project.

Rather than use a series of different LEDs would it not be possible to drive an RGB LED from your
Arduino and have the Arduino run the single diode through the entire color scale?

I think the quality of the wavelength for RGBw are not as precise.

Hi! When you use a RGB-Led you don't have different wavelengths even when the color changes.
For example when the red and green led are on, then you get a yellow but no yellow wavelength.

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 16

Therefore it isn't meaningful to use a RGB-Led. Better than so many different LEDs would be a
continuous spectrum, which you would get with a monochromator consisting of a white light
source, a f.e. Diffraction grating and slits. But on the other hand the light intensity of each
wavelength would be much lower then my different LEDs and the setup would be more
complicated
nice work - I like it!

Thank's...

DIY LED-photometer With Arduino for Physics or Chemistry Lessons: Page 17