Description

Introduction

Spectroscopy

Spectroscopy as a science began with Isaac Newton splitting light with a prism and was called optics. Therefore, it was originally the study of visible light which we call color that later under the studies of James Clerk Maxwell came to include the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Spectroscopy is the branch of science dealing with the study of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter (Fara, 2015). The most important consequence of such interaction is that energy is absorbed or emitted by the matter in discrete amounts called quanta. The absorption or emission processes are known throughout the electromagnetic spectrum ranging from the gamma region (nuclear resonance absorption or the Mossbauer effect) to the radio region (nuclear magnetic resonance) (Jain, 2022). When the measurement of radiation frequency is done experimentally, it gives a value for the change of energy involved and from this one may draw the conclusion about the set of possible discrete energy levels of the matter. The ways in which the measurements of radiation frequency (emitted or absorbed) are made experimentally and the energy levels deduced from these comprise the practice of spectroscopy (Velásquez et al., 2019).

Spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools available for the study of atomic and molecular structure and is used in the analysis of a wide range of samples. The study of spectroscopy can be carried out under following heads (Dadi et al., 2022).