Summary of the technology
• Easy to use: a blank spectrum with water vapor, CO2 and other interfering vapours has to be obtained under the same measurement conditions as those employed for the acquisition of the spectra to be corrected, straightforward selection of relative absorbance values
• Fast: very fast computation as the algorithm is not complex
• Universal: the compensation method can be applied in a vast amount of situations (different samples and sampling devices, different measurement conditions). Compensation of other gases different to H2O and CO2.
• This method do not use spectra smoothing, avoiding distortion of infrared bands from the analytes.
• Improvement of the results obtained employing commercially available software tool.
Description of the tech for sale
The presence of infrared (IR) absorbing molecules in the atmosphere, like for example water and carbon dioxide, is a well-known drawback of infrared spectroscopy. The spectral contribution of those atmospheric gases can hinder the accurate identification and quantification of the analytes of interest. To avoid spectral contributions of those atmospheric gases, usually the sample chamber or sampling device is closed and, in many cases, purged with dry air or nitrogen. Nevertheless, there is still an interest in eliminating the contribution of the spectra after spectra acquisition employing correction techniques when i) no purge for the sample chamber is available or does not work properly, ii) the sample chamber was opened and the operator underestimated the time necessary for equilibrating the conditions inside the sample chamber or iii) the sample chamber cannot be closed due to the employed sampling device. Currently, there are commercial software that compensate only CO2 and water vapour contribution in IR spectra. Due to this reasons, there is an interest in developing chemometric correction methods to compensate the contribution of atmospheric gases and other vapours in IR spectra. Researchers from University of Valencia have developed a method for atmospheric gases compensation in infrared spectra, as well as, the software to apply this method.
Specifications
The invention procedure is an universally applicable, flexible and automatic method for the compensation of unwanted contributions of atmospheric gases and vapours. The algorithm is based on the measurement of a spectrum containing bands of the interfering gas to be eliminated, followed by an automatic estimation of the spectral contribution of the interferences in the spectra of the samples to be corrected. Then this contribution is compensated by a simple spectral subtraction. Furthermore, the method shows a great computational rapidity and can be applied in an universal way for different types of samples and measurement conditions.
Main advantages of its use
- The method of the invention can be used in a vast amount of situations (different samples and sampling devices, different measurement conditions) and for the compensation of other gases different to H2O and CO2.
Applications
- The main application of the technology is in the chemistry area, as a method to correct atmospheric gases influence in infrared spectra that improves selectivity and detection limits in the measurements.
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