Solute concentration prediction using chemometrics and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy

The fundamental processes of crystal nucleation and growth are strongly dependent on the solute concentration. A significant limitation to the development of reliable techniques for the modeling, design, and control of crystallization processes has been the difficulty in obtaining highly accurate supersaturation measurements for dense suspensions. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is coupled with chemometrics to provide highly accurate in situ solute concentration measurement in dense crystal slurries. At the 95% confidence level, the chemometric techniques provided solute concentration estimates with an accuracy of +/-0.12wt% for potassium dihydrogen phosphate. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.