The ability of infrared spectroscopy to distinguish between many of the molecular species found in living organisms has proven valuable in numerous areas of biology and medicine. In many case, high quality spectra can be obtained from samples in less than a minute. A number of papers in the literature have reported on the use of FT-IR spectroscopy to determine the amounts of protein, lipids and carbohydrates in biological samples. In this presentation we will describe the results of infrared measurements made on a number of algae samples. We will discuss the advantages of sampling techniques such as Attenuated Total Reflectance, Transmittance and Diffuse for analyzing samples as well as ways to automate the analysis. We will also compare simple peak height/area methods with multivariate statistical analysis techniques such as PLS and CLS to determine the chemical composition of algae samples.

Characterizing the chemical content of organisms with FT-IR spectroscopy

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.