| Abstract: | Fourier-transform mid-infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy was utilized for rapid and nondestructive determination of nitrogen in rapeseeds. Rapeseed spectra were characterized by independent component analysis for quantitative calibration. A calibration model was built by using independent components as the input for partial least squares. Compared to full-spectrum partial least squares, the combined model achieved higher prediction accuracy with a residual predictive deviation of 2.06. Moreover, a genetic algorithm coupled with partial least squares was adopted to optimize the independent components for partial least square modeling and provide a further refined model with the highest residual predictive deviation of 2.12. A t-test verified a high congruence between results obtained by calibration models and the reference Kjeldahl method. This study demonstrated the promise of Fourier-transform mid-infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy for the determination of nitrogen in rapeseeds and the applicability of independent components for multivariate calibration. |
