Estimation of first-order kinetic parameters by using the extended kalman filter

A model for first-order kinetics is derived for spectra obtained while a reaction is taking place. A technique for nonlinear-regression analysis known as the extended Kalman filter is used to estimate the initial concentrations of the reactants and the rate constant from the spectral data. The effects of the magnitude of the rate constant and the identity of the absorbing species are examined for synthetic spectra containing overlapped responses. The technique is used successfully to obtain the rate constant for the dissociation reaction of a praseodymium complex. The filter is also shown to be useful for the detection of erros in the kinetic model employed to fit the data. The extended Kalman filter can be used to fit kinetic models other than the one discussed here, and may prove to be a valuable technique for estimation of kinetic parameters.