A dual compartment cuvette system for correcting scattering in whole-cell absorbance spectroscopy of photosynthetic microorganisms.

Absorption spectroscopy is widely used to determine absorption and transmission spectra of chromophores in solution, in addition to suspensions of particles, including micro-organisms. Light scattering, caused by photons deflected from part or all of the cells or other particles in suspension, results in distortions to the absorption spectra, lost information and poor resolution. A spectrophotometer with an integrating sphere may be used to alleviate this problem.