- Aug 2020
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chem.libretexts.org chem.libretexts.org
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Table 4.4.24.4.2\PageIndex{2}: Three different types of cuvettes commonly used, with different usable wavelengths.
This table has some errors.
Glass is usually considered: 340 to 2500 nm
Quartz (admittedly different from Fused Quartz) is usually considered: 190 to 2500 nm
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Table 4.4.14.4.1\PageIndex{1}: UV absorbance cutoffs of various common solvents
I would add the cuttoffs to a few experimentally key solvents as follows:
-Acetonitrile: 195
-Chloroform: 245
-DMSO: 265
Reasons:
-Acetonitrile has one of the better UV cuttoffs among standard solvents along with water and ethanol, but its ability to dissolve compounds is a bit different relative to water or ethanol so the three represent a nice range of potent solvents that together cover a rather broad range of potential solutes with an excellent UV cuttoff. Additionally acetonitrile is one of the most common solvents for HPLC for which UV is the most common detector used.
Chloroform: An extremely powerful organic solvent for more aliphatic compounds with a middling UV cuttoff. While it is chloroform-D1 (i.e. CDCl3) that is used for NMR experiments, its cuttoff is very close to that of regular chloroform, and it is very common for busy researchers to try and reuse their NMR sample for other analytical experiments including UV.
-DMSO: poor cutoff and generally not a great solvent for UV work, but it is one of the most popular solvents after water for biologists to dissolve compounds in, and biologists frequently make use of UV for quantifying compound concentration.
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