Resolution of overlapping UV–Vis absorption bands and quantitative analysis

Abstract

Electronic transitions appear in the spectrum as individual bands, described by three basic parameters (position, intensity and width), which can be used for estimation of the fundamental transition characteristics as well as for quantitative analysis. The main problems concerning the mathematical resolution of overlapped individual bands in a complicated spectrum (estimation of the number of overlapping bands, the noise problem, artificial baseline and efficiency of the computing procedure) are discussed and a principal scheme and some solutions are suggested. The use of the resolution of overlapping bands technique for quantitative analysis is given step-by-step in its historical development on real spectral problems. Although the described methods for quantitative analysis are discussed only in terms of UV–Vis spectroscopy they can be easily used in all branches of molecular spectroscopy.