Robot results come in a variety of forms. Sometimes the simplest result that can be obtained from the robot is a single absorption spectrum of a single solution pumped via the cannula through its absorption cell. Such is shown below.
Another kind of result is a set of standard solutions that are carried to another room for subsequent calibration of a lab instrument. Below is shown a working curve for zinc made with the Instrumental Analysis atomic absorption spectrometer from a set of standards prepared from a sub-standard master solution by serial dilution using Mike the robot.
Another kind of result that is obtained with the robot is one that takes days to gather the data for. The example here is the pseudo first-order rate plot for the hydrolysis of aspirin done in the Instrumental Analysis class. The half life for the hydrolysis of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) to salicylic acid is on the order of 40 hours. To determine this, absorption data need to be taken at regular intervals for several days. The data are then made into a "reduced absorbance parameter" and plotted against time. The slope of the curve is proportional to the rate constant for the reaction. This is shown below.
The last type of result comes from having the robot do the complete analytical method. In other words, the robot prepares the sample, mixes the reagents, puts the standards in the colorimeter, measures the absorbance, and repeats everything for standards and unknowns. An example working curve used for the determination of parts per million of iron in drinking water using bipyridine as the color developing reagent is shown below. The data for curve, and the subsequent unknown samples, were all acquired automatically. The graph was plotted using Microsoft Office 98 Excel.
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