You have been redirected to your local version of the requested page

NIR spectroscopy pre-calibrations: Immediate results

Jan 8, 2024

Article

This article is Part 4 of a series.

How pre-calibrations assist quick implementation of near-infrared spectroscopy

Wouldn’t it be nice to start your analysis at the push of a button? Insert the sample, close the lid, and start the measurement – this is all it takes with NIR spectroscopy pre-calibrations.

This is part four in our series about NIR spectroscopy. In this installment, we outline in which cases NIR spectroscopy can be implemented directly in your laboratory without the need for any method development. This means that for these applications your instrument is immediately operational to deliver accurate results – right from day one.

The following topics will be covered (click to jump to the topic):

Workflow for NIR method implementation
Figure 1. Workflow for NIR method implementation.

The advantage of pre-calibrations

In our last installment (How to implement NIR spectroscopy in your laboratory workflow), we showed how you can integrate a newly received NIR spectrometer in your laboratory workflow with a real application example. This process is depicted in Figure 1.

Most of the work consists of creating a calibration set. You have to measure approximately 40–50 samples across the expected parameter range with a primary method. Using a NIR software, you have to link the resulting values to the NIR spectra that were recorded for the same samples (Figure 1: Step 1).

Thereafter, a prediction model needs to be created by visually identifying the spectral changes and correlating these changes to the values obtained from the primary method (Figure 1: Step 2). After validation by the software, a prediction model is available for use in routine measurements.

The process described above requires some effort and is of significant duration because, in many cases, the samples spanning the concentration range first need to be produced and collected. Therefore, it would be very beneficial if steps 1 and 2 could be omitted so that the NIR instrument can be used immediately from day one.

This is not just wishful thinking, but rather the reality for specific applications with the use of pre-calibrations.