Spectra are of great importance for chemists as they are the signature of atoms and molecules. Therefore we aim to find inexpensive ways how also students can conduct spectroscopic experiments.
We built and improved a CD-based spectrometer that was developed by a student from our school 10 years ago. We replaced the CD with a DVD and used our spectrometer - which generates bright, high resolution spectra - for several experiments. As we did not want to record all spectra by hand, we integrated a webcam into our spectrometer, which can be connected to a computer via USB. We also want to investigate spectra in the near infrared as we noticed that our webcam is also sensitive in this spectral range.
