Monday 14 March 2011

Near-IR spectroscopic transmission

Axiom Analytical Inc has announced its fibre-optic coupled FPT-830 Near-IR Transmission Probe. The new probe shares many of the characteristics of the Company’s well-established FPT-850 on-line process analytical probes, including the extreme robustness provided by the Company’s patented welded metal window sealing technique (1). However, the new fibre-optic probe also features reduced diameter (18 mm) and thus is tailored to providing optimum performance when used with the relatively small reaction vessels often employed during pharmaceutical process development and scale-up for on-line process control.

In common with the FPT-850, the FPT-830 employs a single pass through the sample gap. This provides two important advantages compared to double pass 'transflectance' probes. First, it eliminates the possibility of stray light offset caused by backscatter from either the sample or the probe windows. Second, it provides twice the window separation for a given optical pathlength, greatly enhancing sample flow between the windows.

The FPT-850 is widely used for on-line NIR and UV-Visible process analysis in the chemical and petroleum industries. Its ability to be mounted directly in a process line or vessel has brought true in-situ analysis to these industries, eliminating the need for costly and trouble-prone sample conditioning systems. The FPT-830 extends this capability to smaller process lines and reaction vessels. In addition, its reduced weight makes it ideal for many pharmaceutical development and other laboratory applications.

References: (1) US Patent 6,876,801 B1

Axiom Analytical Inc