Molecular Optical Analyzers Based on Smartphones for High School and Universities

Technically simple and extremely cheap setups for colorimetric and fluorimetric analyses using a smartphone camera are presented. Laboratory activities on digital colorimetric and fluorimetric analyses for students of secondary and higher educational institutions are proposed, namely, photocolorimetric determination of acetylsalicylic acid in Cardiomagnyl and copper and nickel in nickel-silver alloy, and fluorimetric determination of riboflavin mononucleotide in its injection solution. Nickel and copper in nickel-silver are determined simultaneously; i.e., two-component colorimetric analysis is performed, which allows the introduction of linear regression analysis to students. The use of the developed setups and activities can help to form the students' skills of a meaningful choice of the conditions for measuring the analytical signal to achieve the required metrological characteristics of the determination results.

Automated summary

This study introduces technically simple and extremely cheap setups for colorimetric and fluorimetric analyses using a smartphone camera, proposing laboratory activities for students of secondary and higher educational institutions to develop their skills in experiment and analysis. The activities include determination of acetylsalicylic acid in Cardiomagnyl and copper and nickel in nickel-silver alloy through photocolorimetric analysis, and determination of riboflavin mononucleotide in its injection solution through fluorimetric analysis. The simultaneous determination of nickel and copper in nickel-silver allows for introduction of linear regression analysis to students, enhancing their ability to choose appropriate conditions for measuring analytical signals and achieving required metrological characteristics of determination results.