NIR – buchinir

Finding the right fit: FT vs Dispersive NIR

The longest continuously running mountain biking series in the United States is hosted in southwest Pennsylvania. Every year, hundreds of locals show up to test themselves in the 5-race series and vie for the title of “local hero.”

Races each take place at different venues, and each venue has a signature “wrench” to throw at riders, ranging from long, strenuous climbs to short but incredibly steep kickers, jagged rock gardens, jostling roots and log jumps, hair-raising descents, and (sometimes) even some smooth, flowing singletrack.

So what’s the point and how does this have anything to do with NIR?

The series champs are the best all-around riders. Top riders are often the most physically fit, yes, but they also are the most prepared. Oftentimes, they have to bring different bikes to best-match the terrain of any given race to get an extra advantage. They bring their fat-tired bike to glide over the rock gardens, or their narrow-tired, lightweight bike to pull away from the competition in the cyclocross race on the dry, grassy field. They bring their full-suspension bike to the downhill race, and their favorite geared bike to the climbing course.

The point is… the equipment (i.e. bike, NIR technology) you bring to the table should best meet the challenge (i.e. race course, NIR application) to perform at the best possible level and achieve the best possible result.

BUCHI offers four different NIR products, the NIRFlex N-500, NIRMaster, ProxiMate and NIR-Online, to meet different challenges or needs, including: application flexibility or difficulty, sampling location, sampling speed, or equipment ruggedness. To meet those requirements with the best advantage, BUCHI NIR products are engineered using one of two technologies: Fourier-transform (FT) and dispersive NIR.

FT-NIR

An FT-NIR, or Fourier Transform NIR, uses an interferometer to modulate the NIR signal and a computer to obtain the spectra of materials.

The simplest form of an interferometer is the classical Michelson, which consists of a beamsplitter and two mutually perpendicular plane mirrors–one which remains static and one which moves. The beamsplitter reflects part of the NIR energy from the source (typically a halogen bulb) onto each mirror. The reflected beams are recombined at the beamsplitter and directed out. When the distance between the beamsplitter and the two mirrors is equidistant, the two beams interfere constructively. The interference between the beams with an optical path difference (i.e. as the moving mirror is displaced) creates an interferogram. The mathematical treatment called Fourier transform is used to convert the interferogram to a spectrum.

Advantages of FT-NIR polarization inteferometer:

Simultaneous measurement of all wavenumbers and greater light throughput, giving an improved signal-to-noise ratio
High wavelength resolution, leading to good data transferability (i.e. calibration transfer) and improved selectivity for spectral features with narrow bandwidth
Single-beam interferometer without typical double-beam divergence for mechanically and temperature stable beam alignment*
More robust design than standard Michelson interferometer*

Because there are fewer optical components to attenuate radiation, more power reaches the detector, providing the benefit of better signal-to-noise ratio. Because the resolution at discrete wavelengths is much better, elements which interact within very narrow bands can be detected (i.e. better selectivity).

* The additional benefits of insensitivity to vibration and robustness are realized with the BUCHI polization interferometer used in both the N-500 and NIRMaster products. This benefit in rough environments is attributed to the difference of spatial movements and the optical path shifts for the two light beams in a birefringent crystal of variable thickness. Whereas in a Michelson type interferometer mechanical distortions directly affect the interference, such effects are reduced by a factor of 10 to 20 in a crystal interferometer.

In addition to displaying the performance benefits of FT-technology, the BUCHI NIRFlex-N500 product is a good fit for an R&D setting or lab where the sample types are varied (e.g. liquids and solids). The N-500 has hot-swappable sampling modules (e.g. fiber optics, solids and liquid measurement cells) and sampling add-ons (e.g. petri dish holders and 6-position vial carousels) to optimize method performance across a variety of applications.

NIRFlex N_500 and NIRMaster both offer the performance benefits of FT-technology. The NIRFlex N-500 is an ultra-flexible laboratory measurement system with hot-swappable modules to optimize any sampling situation. The NIRMaster is a standalone at-line product suitable for more

The BUCHI NIRMaster blends the performance of FT-technology with the more rugged demands of at-line installation points. The NIRMaster is the world’s first dedicated FT-NIR standalone spectrometer available in food-grade PMMA or stainless steel. The accuracy and reproducible performance of polarization FT technology plus the hygienic design with certified dust protection (IP64 or IP65) meets the easy cleaning processes requested for at-line machinery.

As mentioned previously, the optical bench for the N-500 and NIRMaster are the same. While the N-500 isn’t suitable for at-line work due to the risk of ingress, both products have a similar robustness to mechanical disturbances.

However, when an application doesn’t require the level of spectroscopic performance delivered by FT to deliver acceptable property measurement accuracy, or when ultra-fast measurement speed or online measurements are required, then users should look to dispersive NIR technology.

Dispersive NIR

In a dispersive NIR system, light is constantly emitted from an NIR source (typically a tungsten halogen lamp) onto a sample. The diffusely reflected light from the sample is directed to a dispersive element (e.g. stationary grating) and the resulting spatially distributed monochromatic light is detected. In lieu of a moving monochromator and a single detector, a diode array may be used. A diode array usually consists of 256 diodes, each of which collects the intensity of a certain wavelength range depending on its spatial position. These individual diode signals are commonly referred to as pixels. Division of measured intensity (I) by intensity of a white reference spectrum (I₀) as well as conversion of pixels to a wavelength scale results in a so-called spectrum, I/I₀ plotted against nm or cm^-1.

advantages of dispersive technology

Measurement speed
Ruggedness

Utilizing diode arrays gives rise to detecting a specified wavelength range in milliseconds. Averaging up to 200 spectra per second improves signal-to-noise ratio and allows detection of fast moving products in pipes or on conveyor belts. Because diode array based process analyzers do not contain any moving parts, they are robust by design, making them suitable for rough industrial conditions such as vibrations, extreme temperatures or humidity.

In a process environment diode array process analyzers are desirable over scanning or interferometer based technologies. Rotating wavelength filter wheels or Fourier Transform (FT) spectrometers with moving parts require longer measuring times and the quality of measured data relies on stable measurement conditions.

The BUCHI NIR portfolio offers two products using diode array technology: the NIR-Online process analyzer and the standalone at-line ProxiMate NIR.

The BUCHI NIR-Online analyzer (left) and ProxiMate NIR (right) use the same optical bench and are equipped to handle the most extreme processing environments.

The ProxiMate was born out of a call for a lower-cost and higher IP-rated at-line solution for food and feed applications. The IP-69 designation of the ProxiMate indicates complete protection against dust particle up to 4 microns in size and protection from water projected from a powerful nozzle in any direction. The instrument can be washed down in exactly the same way as other plant machinery.

Like the NIR-Online, the ProxiMate delivers fast measurements, enabling greater throughput and less downtime in the lab or on the plant floor. Because the optical bench of the NIR-Online and ProxiMate is identical, data and calibration transfer could also provide faster method transfer from at-line to on-line applications or vice-versa.

Making your selection

Here are some additional factors to consider when it comes to finding that “perfect fit:”

Spectroscopic performance – as dictated by the application. Some applications require higher spectral resolution FT to observe small peak shifts or narrow bandwidth features, while the desired accuracy for other measurements can be easily obtained with a dispersive diode array system.

Sampling considerations (i.e. type(s), frequency, volume, location). If an R&D lab needs to optimize sampling for liquids, solids and slurries, then having the flexibility of a laboratory instrument, plus the benefits of optimal spectral resolution, would lead the user to an FT-NIR like the NIRFlex N-500. When sampling volume and/or frequency requirements are moderate, sample variation is low (i.e. you don’t need to optimize measurement conditions for drastically different materials like slurries, clear liquids and powdered solids) and measurements are more practically done on the plant floor, then an ingress protected NIR solution is advantageous. When sampling points are potentially hazardous or impractical, or when an ideal sampling frequency is very high or continuous, then an in- or online NIR product that is integrated into the processing equipment is clearly the better fit.

Cost and payback. In general, the cost of a diode array instrument is less than an FT-NIR product. Payback can be determined based on the frequency or cost of wet chemistry methods, the reduced sampling time of the NIR method over alternative methods, or mitigating the risk of a failed or recalled batch or accepting out of spec raw materials. Moreover, if an application exists as an out-of-the-box solution (e.g. a “pre-calibration” for moisture, protein and fat in ground meat) then the cost of method development will decrease sharply.

Certifications & standards. Consider whether the installation points or application requires food-grade materials, explosion-proof design, GMP or non-GMP software before making a decision. For example, the BUCHI NIRMaster, ProxiMate and NIROnline products are considered safe in food environments. The BUCHI NIRFlex N-500 and NIRWare software package offers 21 CFR Part 11 compliance and IQ/OQ, whereas the other products do not. The BUCHI NIR-Online^® ExProof process analyzer is constantly over-pressurized, eliminating the risk of flammable gas penetration.

Summary

Just as a mountain bike race would best handled on a mountain bike… there are well-suited NIR products to handle specific application and workplace requirements. Need some more help getting matched up? Contact us.

Supporting References

Skoog, D. A., F. J. Holler, and T. A. Nieman. 1998. Principles of Instrumental Analysis, 5th ed. Chicago, Ill.: Harcourt Brace College Publishers

Burns, D.A., Ciurczak, E.W. 2007. Handbook of Near-Infrared Analysis, 3rd ed. CRC Press.

BUCHI Product Pages

NIRSolutions Product Page

NIR-Online Product Page

Things are really getting cheesy at BUCHI.

When prodded, I suppose many at BUCHI would agree that some of the cheesiest members of the team belong to the NIR group.

Maybe that’s something to be proud of!

Cheese is delicious, after all. With a global market of around $100 Billion USD, I think there is a general agreement on the matter.

There are many ways to consume cheese, of course. Processed cheese products like fondue have their place on the cheese continuum, particular around special events like graduation parties and weddings that seem to dominate our summer calendars.

Manufacturing processed cheese products like fondue is a complex task, with special emphasis on key quality parameters like total solids and fat content.

These products are typically produced by blending one or more shredded natural cheeses with additional ingredients, such as: emulsifying salts, condiments, flavors and other goodies. This mixture is then heated and sheared until a homogeneous molten mass is obtained which can be poured into heart- or graduation-capped shaped molds or other shapes for future devouring.

In order to consistently deliver the same great-tasting product, real-time control of key quality attributes is a must. Monitoring total solids content, fat, salt, pH, homogeneity and more during a blend can allow for real-time process adjustments to meet all of the quality targets and avoid having to rework a batch. The end result: tasty cheese products (read: make money) and improved manufacturing efficiency (read: save money).

While traditional laboratory methods exist for determining the quality parameters, issues with representative sampling and the method collection times are rate-limiting.

Want to learn more? Contact Us and request Short Note #357, or ask to speak with an Applications Specialist to learn more about how you can implement NIR for better process control in cheese manufacturing.

You can also visit our NIR-Online Solutions page to learn more.

If cheese quality is on your mind, but an on-line solution isn’t a good fit, BUCHI also has milk & dairy solutions for our off-line and at-line NIR. You can use our NIR Applications Finder on-line tool to configure the perfect NIR solution for you. Choose your industry and products, then get a full listing of available pre-calibrated applications, plus a quote.

Among our pre-calibrated parameters, you’ll find: dry matter, moisture, fat, protein, lactose, fatty acids, total sugar, ash and more.

Use our new NIR Application Finder to get the latest in Pre-Calibrated Solutions for your industry.

Interested in an application that isn’t listed? Fear not! We have a team of Application Scientists at the ready. Reach them using our Application Support Request Form .

If you’re looking for the full gamut of our published cheese & dairy applications, check out the BUCHI Application Finder. You’ll find methods related to:

Extraction
Spray Drying
Kjeldahl for protein determination
Near-infrared spectroscopy

Stay cheesy, my friends!

Quality is Going to the Dogs.

Don’t worry, it’s a good thing.

This week, BUCHI Product and Application Specialists mingled with pet food suppliers and manufacturers at the Petfood Forum 2019 in Kansas City, MO. Some key topics on deck for event speakers include nutrition, labeling, product development, safety and manufacturing.

BUCHI Laboratory Solutions can help keep the fur kids happy and healthy.

Did you know BUCHI has its paws in the formulation, quality control and labeling aspects of the pet food industry?

Formulation

Our spray dryer and freeze dryer equipment can be used to develop innovative, nutritious and shelf-stable products for happy, healthy pets. These technologies have been used to optimize stability and bioavailability for pet food ingredients, including: natural products, amino acids, proteins, vitamins and oils.

Quality Control

WATT Global Media conducted a survey and identified raw material ingredient quality as the top concern among surveyed Petfood Forum registrants. BUCHI provides expertise and laboratory and process equipment which helps to address quality standards at various stages along the pet food value chain, from raw material intake, to in-process quality control, to finished product testing to validate label claims.

The multi-axis plot shown below is a type of decision tree to determine which is the most appropriate method to select for protein determination, comparing Kjeldahl (red line), Dumas (yellow dashed line) and NIR (blue dashed line). For example, if your current need is for a high-speed analysis with a small environmental footprint, suitable for moderate sample type variation, then NIR is a good choice. If labeling compliance is of chief concern, with potential to adapt methods to broad variation in sample types, then Kjeldahl is a better selection.

Raw material inspection is an important component of a quality control program. Understanding the actual quality and parameters of incoming materials can help avoid process or nutritional deviations that occur because of out-of-spec ingredients. There is also an economical component: formulate closer to target and minimize issues like “protein give-away,” or avoid product recalls due to mislabeled or contaminated ingredients.

Near-infrared spectroscopy is one tool in the analytical toolbox that has been useful for establishing quality in raw ingredients, from grains to raw meats. The speed of analysis is well-suited for a quick quality check against Certificates of Analysis upon receipt of supplied goods.

Typical parameters measured by NIR in meat products include: protein, fat and moisture. For meat applications, color, pH, salt, starch and collagen content may also be implemented. These and other calibrations may be further refined with the addition of samples representative of the ingredient suppliers used within any production scheme.

Click to view a webinar highlighting ways to manage pet food production & quality using NIR

Properties of raw meat ingredients can be monitored at the time of their production, with installation points over a conveyor belt, directly in product pipes or processing equipment including deboners, grinders or mixers. An example of online measurements of protein, moisture and fat content of minced meat at a mixer has been described in a BUCHI short note . These same calibrations can be applied in-line or off-line for the pet food manufacturer who sources meat from a supplier. Large premium meat producers such as Mircana have successfully implemented this equipment to make real-time corrections to processing deviations at the mixer.

Watch this short clip to see how single or multipoint inline NIR sensors can help you control your production process

Labeling

Kjeldahl is the most established reference method for protein determination in feed, and commonly serves as a reference for NIR. You can find applications for protein and fat determination by Kjeldahl and Soxhlet extraction using our BUCHI Application Finder. Some of the content you’ll find includes:

quantifying fat in fish food and animal feed
nitrogen & protein determination in dry pet food , wet pet food or grains & soy

The BUCHI Booth at Petfood Forum is getting packed up later today. If you missed us, Contact Us to schedule a chat with an Application Specialist, or even a virtual demo!

NIR: a Spring-y subject

Winter felt brutal and eternal, as it always does for someone who doesn’t ski or care for hot chocolate, I suppose. What a relief it is to see signs of Spring emerging from my brownish-colored yard and hear birds chirping outside once again.

Did you know NIR is quite Spring-y as well. This blog will explore some spring-themed theory.

beautiful bird bloom blossom — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

At temperatures above absolute zero (i.e. even in the dead of a Northeast USA snowmageddon), all of the atoms in a molecule are in continuous vibration with respect to each other.

The behavior of molecular vibration is analogous to a mechanical model in which two masses connected to the ends of a spring! A disturbance of one of these masses along the axis of the spring results in a vibration called the simple harmonic oscillation.

close up of metal — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Vibration, or the displacement of an atom relative to its equilibrium position, produces potential energy proportional to the work required to displace the mass. This energy is at its maximum when the spring is stretched or compressed to its maximum amplitude. It is at its minimum (i.e., zero) at the equilibrium position.

The fundamental requirement for infrared (Far-IR, mid-IR, near-IR) activity, leading to the absorption of infrared radiation, is that the energy of incident radiation matches the vibrational energy levels exactly, and that the vibration itself causes a change in dipole moment. The frequency of radiation that will bring about this change can be calculated by Hooke’s Law:

where c is the speed of light (3×10³ cm/s), f is the force constant of the bond (dyne/cm), and M_x and M_y are the masses of the atom x and atom y involved in the bond, respectively. The force constant is positively correlated to properties such as bond order or bond strength (i.e. the “springiness” of the bond). In accordance with the Boltzmann distribution, frequencies which correspond to fundamental transitions between the ground state and first vibrational level (n = 1) dominate the vibrational absorption spectrum. Because the majority of absorption bands of chemical compounds correspond to fundamental vibrations at infrared frequencies, it is a common tool for structural elucidation.

How does thee vibrate? Let me count the ways.

The number of possible or theoretical fundamental vibrations is determined by the total degrees of freedom of the molecule. Each atom requires three degrees of freedom in order to describe its position relative to other atoms in the molecule. Therefore, a molecule of N atoms has 3N degrees of freedom. For nonlinear molecules, six degrees of freedom are used to describe translation and rotation; the remaining 3N – 6 degrees of freedom are vibrational degrees of freedom (i.e., fundamental vibrational modes). For linear molecules, only two degrees of freedom are required to describe rotation, resulting in 3N-5 normal modes.

Disclaimer: Sometimes 1+1 doesn’t equal 2

The number of theoretical bands will not necessarily equate to the number observed experimentally. The number of theoretical bands observed may be reduced by: lack of a change in the molecule’s dipole as it vibrates or rotates, fundamental frequencies that fall outside of the infrared region or are too weak to be observed, vibrations that coalesce, or the occurrence of a degenerate band from several absorptions of the same frequency in highly symmetrical molecules. On the other hand, vibrations at integer-multiples of a given frequency and combination tones will increase the actual number of bands observed. It is from the combination and overtones transitions that NIR spectra arise.

The NIR region of the electromagnetic spectrum covers the range of approximately 14,000 to 4,000 cm^-1, or about 700 to 2,500 nm. The most prominent absorption bands occurring in the NIR region include overtones and combinations of fundamental vibrations of the IR-active –CH, –OH, -CO, –NH and –SH functional groups present in most pharmaceutical drug molecules. Due to the relatively weak molar absorptivities of the transitions responsible for the peaks observed, sample dilution is not required. This characteristic also provides for relatively deep sample penetration up to several millimeters thick, especially at shorter wavelengths (e.g., 700-1500 nm). Even though NIR spectroscopy is characterized by spectra which are typically broad, overlapping and of low intensity relative to the fundamental mid-IR absorption bands, it has some practical advantages. The richness and utility of NIR spectra is a consequence of anharmonic oscillation.

Anharmonicity: where the simple rules start to break down and things start to get interesting

Bonds which share a common atom seldom behave as independent oscillators. As the interatomic distance separating two atoms decreases, coulombic repulsion between the nuclei results in an additional force which acts in the same direction as the force restoring the system toward equilibrium. Thus, the potential energy of the system increases more rapidly than predicted by the harmonic oscillator. On the other hand, as the interatomic distance approaches that at which dissociation of the atoms takes place, a decrease in the restoring force and potential energy of the system occurs. The intramolecular interactions produce non-symmetric vibrations about the equilibrium position. The anharmonicity results in non-equivalent energy changes between vibrational states, where ΔE becomes smaller at higher quantum numbers. Moreover, the selection rule is not rigorously followed (because rules are made to be broken), thus allowing the overtones responsible for much of the NIR spectra, where Δn = ±2, ±3 and ±4 represent the first, second and third overtones, respectively.

The degree of anharmonicity determines the extent of the displacement from an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, as well as the intensity of the overtones. Vibrations stemming from intramolecular hydrogen-bonding vibrations have the highest anharmonicity constants, leading to their prevalence and high intensity in the NIR region. That’s why NIR is so great at measuring low levels of water in samples!

More interesting stuff in the spectra:

NIR spectra are further enriched when vibrational modes interact to give absorptions at frequencies that are the approximate sums or differences of their fundamental frequencies. These combination bands, which generally occur between 1900 and 2400 nm, are a consequence of energy absorption by two bonds rather than one, allowing the photon to excite two vibrational modes simultaneously. As with overtones, the intensities of combination bands are weaker than their fundamental frequencies.

A special type of interaction called Fermi resonance occurs as a consequence of accidental degeneracy of different vibrational modes have the same symmetry and approximately the same frequency as a fundamental vibration. This results in two relatively strong absorbance bands which are displaced at slightly higher and lower frequencies than expected, respectively.

Darling and Dennison resonance affects vibrations which have identical symmetry species and similar energies, leading to several pairs of absorption bands.

Coupling between oscillators results in slight to moderate shifts in the absorption frequency of the molecules involved. In general, coupling requires that vibrations be of the same symmetry species and a common atom or bond between the two vibrations or vibrating groups, respectively. The interaction is greatest when the coupled groups have nearly equivalent energies; little to no interaction is observed by groups separated by two or more bonds. Despite the fact that coupling leads to uncertainties in functional group identification, it is this phenomenon that provides the unique features of a spectrum enabling compound identification.

For more reading on this spring-y subject:

Skoog D.A. and Leary J.J. Principles of Instrumental Analysis. 4th Edition. 1992.

Silverstein R.M, Spectrometric Identification of Organic Compounds, 5th Edition. 1991.

D. Burns, and E. Ciurczak,Handbook of Near-Infrared Analysis 2^ndEdition, Marcel-Dekker, Inc. New York, 2001.

E. Ciurczak and J. Drennen, Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in Pharmaceutical and Medical Applications, Marcel-Dekker, Inc. New York, 2002.

L. Weyer and S.-C. Lo, “Spectra-Structure Correlations in the Near-infrared,” In Handbook of Vibrational Spectroscopy, Volume 3, Wiley, U.K., 2002.

Evolution of BUCHI NIR

February 12 was Darwin Day. Darwin, of course, was known for his theories of evolution. While his theories continue to be hotly debated 137 years after his passing, none could argue that products and companies must evolve in some capacity to keep pace with, and meet the demands of customers-at-large.

Borrowing the words of Spanish soccer player Gerard Pique, “Evolution is all about looking forward.” The BUCHI NIR portfolio shows evidence of evolution in that sense.

The BUCHI NIR “big bang” occurred in 1999 with the acquisition of Buhler NIR, with incremental steps leading up to the dramatic upgrade to the NIRFlex series, and so far culminating with the N-500 FT-NIR product.

The NIRFlex bench-top instrumentation was designed to meet consumer demands in both R&D and routine testing labs for true flexibility and high performance. Hot-swap modules accommodate nearly any sample type (i.e. solid, liquid, semi-solid or slurry), while the Fourier-transform (FT) technology provides exceptional precision. A novel single-beam FT design further propels instrument performance, stability and robustness, while hardware and software components continue to meet even the demands of the pharmaceutical regulatory agencies.

Next, the NIRMaster was added to the portfolio specifically to serve the demands of the food and feed industries, bringing with it IP-54 and IP-65 ingress protection and features designed to ensure food safety. This revolutionary design was the first to marry the accuracy of FT-NIR with a robust and hygienic standalone at-line design suited for the production floor.

In 2005, the BUCHI portfolio expanded with the acquisition of German on-line sensor manufacturer NIR-Online, just a modest train ride away from company headquarters in Flawil, Switzerland. With this acquisition, BUCHI was finally able to offer a true in- and on-line NIR solution for process control. Since its introduction, the NIR-Online product has further evolved, expanding capabilities to include multiplexing, and continuing to meet requirements for workplace safety, including explosion-proof options for hazardous environments.

In late 2018, the BUCHI NIR portfolio saw its next evolution: the ProxiMate. This at-line workhorse took the speed and agility of the NIR-Online solution at-line, creating an affordable option for the typical food and feed industry customer without compromise in quality or performance.

ProxiMate offers 3 main benefits for food and feed industry users: applicative fit, extreme robustness and simple operation.

Applicative Fit

BUCHI application chemists have developed many ready-to-use pre-calibrations typically required by the food and feed industries, enabling accurate results with minimal effort and by users of any ability level

Extreme Robustness

Simple operation

Of course, the idea of the “survival of the fittest” comes to mind on Darwin Day. It seems that the more recent of our evolutionary steps in the NIR product portfolio has been hyper-focused on robustness–survival in the dirtiest, harshest, or most hazardous environments. Learn more about ProxiMate and join us on this Extreme Journey along the NIR evolutionary path!

Near vs. Mid-IR: pick your poison

Is there a simple answer?

Of course not! When it comes to the debate regarding which infrared spectroscopy reigns superior, near-infrared (NIR) or mid-infrared (IR), the answer should be a reflect the merits of the technology in light of the application of interest. It’s like asking whether a knife is better than a spoon. Well, are you trying to cut an apple or eat ice cream? You see my point.

Basic theory

Put simply, infrared spectroscopy is the study of the interaction of infrared light with matter, where infrared light is characterized by wavenumber range spanning from 12,800 to 10 cm^-1 (or wavelengths of 0.78 to 1000 micron). Mid-IR is typically defined as light between 4000 and 400 cm^-1, and NIR as light between 10,000 and 4,000 cm^-1, give or take. Mid- and near-IR are included under the umbrella of molecular spectroscopy.

Imagine your sample at the molecular level, with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms coordinated by chemical bonds in such a way as to produce the water, fat and protein content in that sample. The relative positions of the atoms in the molecules of your sample are not fixed; they fluctuate continuously as a consequence of a multitude of different types of vibrations (i.e. stretching and bending) and rotations about the bonds in the molecule. Check out this page for some nice illustrations and more in-depth theory. When the frequency of a specific vibration is equal to the frequency of the IR radiation directed on the molecule (*and the molecule undergoes a net change in dipole moment as a consequence of the vibrational or rotational motion), the molecule absorbs the radiation. A plot of the measured infrared radiation intensity versus wavenumber is known as an infrared spectrum.

Consider the difference in the wavenumber range (and hence, energy) of mid- and near-IR radiation. The higher-energy mid-IR is exciting fundamental vibrations; that is, when energy is absorbed by the molecule in its ground state to the first vibrational state. NIR spectroscopy is comprised of combination bands of overtones of those fundamental vibrations. The latter are of much lower intensity than their fundamental analogs, owing to their lower transition probabilities. This can be an advantage OR disadvantage – depending on what you’re trying to do (keep reading!).

The bonds defining functional groups (structural fragments within the molecule, like C=O, N-H or C-H), tend to absorb IR radiation at predictable wavenumber ranges, regardless of the rest of the molecule’s structure. Organic functional groups have characteristic and well-delineated absorption bands in the mid-IR, lending the technique to structural elucidation and compound identification, especially when paired with other analytical methods like NMR. While the broad peaks and overlapping of the overtone and combination bands strongly decrease the specificity of NIR spectroscopy for spectral interpretation, low absorptivity and efficient light scattering by NIR radiation can be advantageously exploited. In other words, because the absorption intensity is low, NIR samples do not need to be diluted (as with mid-IR) to avoid saturation at the detector; sample thickness interrogated by NIR light can be extended from millimeters up to centimeters, depending on the sample composition. This large sampling volume is valuable for quantitative analysis of samples with some degree of heterogeneity.

Let’s now consider a common application where both mid-IR (FT-IR) and NIR methods are commonly employed: raw material identification.

Mid-IR Advantages

Characteristic and well-delineated absorption bands for organic species in the mid-IR lend the technique to structural elucidation and compound identification; detailed tables of characteristic group frequencies facilitate structural elucidation efforts

Mid-IR Disadvantages

The need for sample dilution (e.g. KBr pellets, salt plates) is common, requiring extra time for material evaluation, as well as effective “destruction” of the sample (i.e. the sample cannot be used beyond the mid-IR measurement)
The small sampling volume of mid-IR when using attenuated total reflectance (ATR) is small, thus limiting method repeatability for less homogeneous samples

NIR Advantages

NIR spectra are impacted by both chemical and physical attributes of the sample; therefore, NIR can be used to discriminate between grades of the same chemical substance
NIR radiation achieves more sample penetration; increased sampling volume may increase sensitivity to contaminants
No sample preparation (i.e. no pellets or salt plates), nor purge gas is required, thus reducing the sampling efforts and costs
Spectra are collected in seconds (typically 4 to 30s)

NIR Disadvantages

Some functional groups having both fundamental and first order (or higher) overtones in the mid-IR region will not appear in the NIR region, potentially limiting the discriminatory power of NIR for certain sample sets
Due to the more complex (i.e. broad and overlapping) signal of NIR spectroscopy, chemometric procedures are required for qualitative discrimination. The superposition of bands However, software capable of handling these procedures is widely available and quite capable when paired with solid experimental design

Conclusion

What’s the moral of the story? If you have a label on a bag of white powder and you want to quickly see if that label is correct, then NIR is likely to be the right choice for you. You’ll complete your analysis quicker and be able to retain or use the NIR sample as you see fit. However, if you are synthesizing compounds in the lab and you want to know what you brewed up, mid-IR is the clear choice.

Chemical Industry QC with NIR

Read this post, or watch the webinar instead!

Quality control for many labs involves a heavy dose of wet chemistry methods, things like titration and separation techniques that take skill, time and (even more) chemicals to execute. Luckily, some of these traditional testing methods can be replaced by simple, fast and safe NIR spectroscopy.

While this blog title indicates applicability to the Chemical Industry, “chemical” is one broad umbrella. There are myriad products and processes that fall under the chemicals category, from natural products like wood and pulp to personal care products to standard bulk chemicals. Reaching all of these audiences with one blog post seemed a little daunting until we broke it down to some common key themes for implementation of NIR for the chemical (or any!) industry:

Raw material qualification
Intermediate/in-process testing
Finished product testing

Of course, the typical applications that might fall into any one of these categories will differ based on the products being produced. Some of the more common applications include:

Material identification
%-Moisture or %-solvent quantification
Reaction extent or %-polymerization
Hydroxyl and acid number determination

As with many other industries, the raw materials used for production of chemical products are often non-discrete, sourced from various parts of the galaxy, and labeled–sometimes correctly, sometimes not. If you follow product recalls, you’ll find that millions of dollars have been lost due to mislabeled containers being poured into mixers, placed on trucks for distribution to other producers, or stocked on store shelves.

NIR is one quick tool used for identity testing of routinely received materials. There is potential to differentiate isomers, crystalline forms, chemical analogs, fatty acids, and even contaminated materials. Because identity testing with NIR takes seconds and can be done in the warehouse, more frequent testing can be accomplished without backlogging the QC guys and gals.

On the quantitative side, there is plenty to measure keeping in mind the inherent sensitivity of NIR to particular molecular bonds, including O-H, C-H, N-H and C-O bonds. So, if those bonds are changing in type or in number, NIR could be a great fit. This is the case in the typical chemical application of determining hydroxyl number, where we observe a decrease in NIR signal attributed to O-H bonds as those O-H end groups are consumed during polymerization. In fact, determining hydroxyl number of polyols by NIR is a standard practice per ASTM and ISO.

BUCHI Market Manager and former BUCHI NIR Applications Specialist Ryanne Palermo produced a short webinar on these topics, including a fiery example of tracking nitrogen substitution in nitrocellulose. Tune into the webinar by clicking here.

Find more free, streaming content on our BUCHI Webinar On-Demand page, including information about preparative chromatography, laboratory and industrial evaporation, drying, encapsulation and more.