33
Kinetics Experiments
Select
Spectrometer | Kinetics Configuration
from the menu to configure and establish the parameters for
a kinetics experiment. In the
Kinetics Configuration
dialog box, you can collect spectral data as a function
of time, from up to 4 single wavelengths and up to two mathematical combinations of these wavelengths.
A kinetics experiment will not be
displayed in the graph unless you
choose
Spectrometer |
Spectrometer Configuration
from the menu and choose
Spectrum & Kinetics
next to
Graph and chart display mode
.
This way, not only will your
kinetics experiment be displayed
in the bottom half of the graph
area, you will also still see a
spectrometer channel’s real-time
spectra in the top half of the
graph area.
To run a kinetics experiment:
1.
In the graph area, select acquisition parameters, such as integration period, averaging, and boxcar
smoothing values. Do not change these parameters for the duration of the kinetics experiment.
2.
Select
Spectrometer | Kinetics Configuration
from the menu to open the Kinetics Configuration
dialog box.
3.
Enter a
Preset Duration
value to set the length of time for the entire kinetics process. Be sure to select
hours, minutes and seconds. The duration of your kinetics experiment cannot exceed 24 hours.
4.
Enter a
Preset Sampling Interval
value to set the frequency of the data collected in a kinetics process.
Be sure to select hours, minutes and seconds. Data from a timed acquisition is stamped with a time that
is accurate to 1 millisecond.
5.
Under
Wavelength
, enter the single wavelengths from which you wish to collect data. You can collect
data from up to 4 single wavelengths, characterized as
a
,
b
,
c
, and
d
.
6.
If you want the data graphed from these single wavelengths, or from the mathematical calculations
(described in the next step), select the
Display
box to the right of your values.
7.
In the boxes next to
x =
and
y =
, you have the opportunity to perform calculations on the data collected
from the single wavelengths you specified as
a
,
b
,
c
, and
d
. In the
y =
box, you can also use
x
, which
represents the calculation used in
x =
.
8.
Click
OK
to confirm the parameters and close the dialog box.
9.
Click the
Scan
button to begin the kinetics experiment. Make sure that
Continuous
is selected. The
top half of the graph displays a real-time full wavelength spectrum. The bottom half of the graph
displays the data for the selected wavelengths and their derived arithmetic calculations. Each data set is
stored with a time stamp.
10.
Click the
Stop
button to stop the experiment. However, if a
Preset Duration
time was selected, the
experiment will automatically stop after the designated time has passed.
11.
Select
File | Save Kinetics Values
from the menu to save a tab-delimited ASCII file with the
spectrometer’s serial number, active channel and acquisition parameters in a header. This file can be
opened with any text or spreadsheet editor.
