Near-infrared detection of flow injection analysis by acoustooptic tunable filter-based spectrophotometry

The instrumentation development of a near-infrared (near-IR) spectrophotometer based on an acoustooptic tunable filter (AOTF) and its application as a detector for flow injection analysis (FIA) are reported. In addition to being compact and all solid state, this AOTF-based instrument is very sensitive, has high resolution, and can be rapidly scanned. The latter advantage make it uniquely suited as a detector for FIA, in that it can rapidly record the whole near-IR absorption spectrum of a mixture passing through the FIA flow cell. Subsequent treatment of the recorded spectra with multivariate calibration methods makes it possible to use the FIA, for the first time, for such applications as the simultaneous determination of trace amounts of water and benzene in ethanol. Because all organic compounds absorb light in the near-infrared region, this AOTF-based near-IR detector can serve as a universal detector for FIA; as a consequence, applications of the FIA techniques can be expanded to other areas which are not possible otherwise.