Spectrograph - more than just absorbance

20 September 2017

Designed for both quantification and detection of a specific reagent at a particular wavelength, absorbance/OD value has long been used by researchers for both discovery and quality control in experimentations.

In principal, the amount of light that is absorbed directly correlates to how much reagent is present. This method can be used in a range of experimental applications such as ELISA assays, enzyme activity, DNA quantification and many more.

Many plate readers on the market allow UV/Vis to be measured via the selection of a specific optical filter but the Hidex Sense reads the samples across the full wavelength spectrum (220 - 1000 nm). This is done via the spectrograph which utilises a grating and a CCD detector, enabling the user to analyse the sample in just <0.3 seconds per well.

The innovative spectrograph mechanism firstly passes light through the  sample. The beam is then focused and parallelised. The grating plate diffracts the light into monochromatic beams with different wavelengths. Each beam propagates in a unique direction which are then focused at different locations along the CCD detector.

In comparison, a monochromatic system would take several minutes to analyse the full wavelength per well. With the intuitive software being application focused, the user can easily access the full spectrum data set which can then either be exported in full or at the optimum/desired wavelength to be further analysed.