Detection of low volatility organic analytes on soils using infrared reflection spectroscopy

Previous work on detection of low-volatility liquid organic (and organophosphorus) analytes on soil indicated strong signal in FTIR spectra in the 2966–2855 cm-1 range attributed to C–H vibrational stretching modes. This range is the focus of detection strategies examined here as an anticipated prelude to subsequent detection and classification approaches utilizing additional spectral bands. This laboratory study is being used to test detection algorithms that may be useful for rapid standoff detection of organics compounds on soil. Six signal processing methods (designed to minimize irrelevant variability in the recorded soil reflection-absorption spectra while enhancing signal from analyte compounds possibly present on soil) were studied. These included Savitzky-Golay second derivatives, extended multiplicative scatter correction (EMSC), and a novel alternative to piece-wise EMSC. The preprocessed signal was then used for detection. Previous work utilized principal components analysis (PCA) based multivariate statistical process control methodologies for detection. Six alternative anomaly detection statistics were examined here that were based on the preprocessed signal, weighted signal, and generalized weighted signal. The latter statistic can be considered easier than PCA with many of the same benefits. Two tests corresponding to different monitoring strategies were examined: test data ‘local’ and ‘non-local’ to the calibration data. Although themore » results are expected to be optimistic, the generalized weighted approach worked extremely well for the ‘local’ detection test, but was less successful for ‘non-local’ test. Results suggest that good characterization of analyte-free soil prior to monitoring will lead to the best detection performance. Second derivative preprocessing showed the best results on receiver operator characteristic curves and it’s ease of application is a distinct advantage. However, it may not be universally successful for all bands to be considered in the future. Both EMSC and the novel ‘piece-wise’ EMSC methodology showed promise, but some improvements may be necessary.« less