Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the seventh edition
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Basic principles
- 2 Cell culture techniques
- 3 Centrifugation
- 4 Microscopy
- 5 Molecular biology, bioinformatics and basic techniques
- 6 Recombinant DNA and genetic analysis
- 7 Immunochemical techniques
- 8 Protein structure, purification, characterisation and function analysis
- 9 Mass spectrometric techniques
- 10 Electrophoretic techniques
- 11 Chromatographic techniques
- 12 Spectroscopic techniques: I Spectrophotometric techniques
- 13 Spectroscopic techniques: II Structure and interactions
- 14 Radioisotope techniques
- 15 Enzymes
- 16 Principles of clinical biochemistry
- 17 Cell membrane receptors and cell signalling
- 18 Drug discovery and development
- Index
- Plate section
- References
12 - Spectroscopic techniques: I Spectrophotometric techniques
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the seventh edition
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Basic principles
- 2 Cell culture techniques
- 3 Centrifugation
- 4 Microscopy
- 5 Molecular biology, bioinformatics and basic techniques
- 6 Recombinant DNA and genetic analysis
- 7 Immunochemical techniques
- 8 Protein structure, purification, characterisation and function analysis
- 9 Mass spectrometric techniques
- 10 Electrophoretic techniques
- 11 Chromatographic techniques
- 12 Spectroscopic techniques: I Spectrophotometric techniques
- 13 Spectroscopic techniques: II Structure and interactions
- 14 Radioisotope techniques
- 15 Enzymes
- 16 Principles of clinical biochemistry
- 17 Cell membrane receptors and cell signalling
- 18 Drug discovery and development
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Spectroscopic techniques employ light to interact with matter and thus probe certain features of a sample to learn about its consistency or structure. Light is electromagnetic radiation, a phenomenon exhibiting different energies, and dependent on that energy, different molecular features can be probed. The basic principles of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter are treated in this chapter. There is no obvious logical dividing point to split the applications of electromagnetic radiation into parts treated separately. The justification for the split presented in this text is purely pragmatic and based on ‘common practice’. The applications considered in this chapter use visible or UV light to probe consistency and conformational structure of biological molecules. Usually, these methods are the first analytical procedures used by a biochemical scientist. The applications covered in Chapter 13 present a higher level of complexity in undertaking and are employed at a later stage in biochemical or biophysical characterisation.
An understanding of the properties of electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with matter leads to an appreciation of the variety of types of spectra and, consequently, different spectroscopic techniques and their applications to the solution of biological problems.
Properties of electromagnetic radiation
The interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter is a quantum phenomenon and dependent upon both the properties of the radiation and the appropriate structural parts of the samples involved. This is not surprising, since the origin of electromagnetic radiation is due to energy changes within matter itself.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Principles and Techniques of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology , pp. 477 - 521Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
References
- 11
- Cited by