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Application Note
Agilent Technologies
Innovating the HP Way
Introduction
If a spectrum is expressed as
absorbance, A, as a function of 1.0 Absorbance 1.0 Absorbance
wavelength, l, the derivative
spectra are:
0.5 0.5
0.0 0.0
Zero order 300 400 500 600 700 300 400 500 600 700
A = f ()
2.0E-04
First order 0.01
dA 0.0E+00
= f ( )
d 0.00 -2.0E-04
-4.0E-04
Second order
-0.01
1st derivative -6.0E-04 2nd derivative
d2A
= f () 300 400 500 600 700 300 400 500 600 700
d2
2.0E-04 3rd derivative 1.0E+06 4rd derivative
1.0E-04
5.0E-07
0.0E+00
0.0E+00
-1.0E-04
-5.0E-07
-2.0E-04
Figure 1 shows a computer 300 400 500 600 700 300 400 500 600 700
simulation of the effects of
derivatization on the appearance Figure 1
Absorbance and derivative spectra of a Gaussian band
of a simple Gaussian absorbance
band. Derivative spectra are
always more complex than zero-
order spectra.
A first-order derivative is the rate The most characteristic feature of A strong negative or positive band
of change of absorbance with a second-order derivative is a with minimum or maximum at the
respect to wavelength. A first- negative band with minimum at same wavelength as lmax of the
order derivative starts and finishes the same wavelength as the absorbance band is characteristic
at zero. It also passes through zero maximum on the zero-order band. of the even-order derivatives.
at the same wavelength as lmax of It also shows two additional
the absorbance band. Either side positive satellite bands either side Note that the number of bands
of this point are positive and of the main band. A fourth-order observed is equal to the derivative
negative bands with maximum and derivative shows a positive band. order plus one.
minimum at the same wavelengths
as the inflection points in the
absorbance band. This bipolar
function is characteristic of all
odd-order derivatives.
Quantification Obtaining derivative spectra
If we assume that the zero-order Derivative spectra can be obtained the amplitude and wavelength
spectrum obeys Beers law, there by optical, electronic, or math- shift of the derivatives varies with
is a similar linear relationship ematical methods. Optical and scan speed, slit width, and resis-
between concentration and electronic techniques were used tance-capacitance gain factor.
amplitude for all orders of deriva- on early UV-Visible spectropho-
tive: tometers but have largely been Mathematical techniques
superseded by mathematical To use mathematical techniques
Zero order techniques. The advantages of the the spectrum is first digitized with
A = b c mathematical techniques are that a sampling interval of Dl. The size
derivative spectra may be easily of Dl depends on the natural
First order calculated and recalculated with bandwidth (NBW) of the bands
different parameters, and smooth- being processed and of the
dA d
= bc ing techniques may be used to bandwidth of the instrument used
d d improve the signal-to-noise ratio. to generate the data. Typically, for
UV-Visible spectra, the NBW is in
nth order Optical and electronic the range 10 to 50 nm. First-
techniques derivative spectra may be calcu-
d A d
n n
= bc The main optical technique is lated simply by taking the differ-
dn dn wavelength modulation, where the ence in absorbance between two
wavelength of incident light is closely spaced wavelengths for all
l wavelength wavelengths :
A absorbance rapidly modulated over a narrow
e extinction coefficient wavelength range by an electrome- ( A+ A )
b sample path length D+ /2 =
c sample concentration chanical device. The first and
second derivatives may be gener-
For single component quantifica- ated using this technique. It is Where the derivative amplitude,
tion the selection of wavelengths popular for dedicated spectropho- Dl, is calculated for a wavelength
for derivative spectra is not as tometer designs used in, for intermediate between the two
simple as for absorbance spectra example, environmental monitor- absorbance wavelengths.
because there are both positive ing. First-derivative spectra may
and negative peaks. For the even- also be generated by a dual For the second-derivative determi-
order derivatives there is a peak wavelength spectrophotometer. nation three closely-spaced
maximum or minimum at the same The derivative spectrum is gener- wavelength values are used:
lmax as the absorbance spectrum ated by scanning with each ( A 2 A + A + )
but for the odd-order derivatives monochromator separated by a D =
2
this wavelength is a zero crossing small constant wavelength differ-
point. ence. Higher-order derivatives can be
calculated from similar expres-
Taking the difference between the First and higher-order derivatives sions.
highest maximum and the lowest can be generated using analog
minimum gives the best signal-to- resistance capacitance devices. This method involves simple linear
noise ratio but may lead to in- These generate the derivative as a interpolation between adjacent
creased sensitivity to interference function of time as the spectrum is wavelengths. A better method is
from other components. scanned at constant speed that proposed by Savitzky and
(dA/dt=S). For the first derivative: Golay. To calculate the derivative
at a particular wavelength, l, a
dA 1 dA
= window of n data points is
d S dt selected and a polynomial is fitted
Higher-order derivatives are using the least squares method:
obtained by using successive
derivators. The electronic method
A = a0 + a1 + + al l
suffers from the disadvantage that
Features and applications
An advantage of this method is For clarity the points made in the For example, the absorbance
that it can be used to smooth the following discussion are illustrated spectrum of the steroid testoster-
data. If the polynomial order, l, is using computer-generated ex- one has a single, broad, featureless
less than the number of data amples. In the figures, dotted lines band centered at about 330 nm but
points (2n+1) in the window, the show the baseline, dashed lines the second derivative has six quite
polynomial generally cannot go show component spectra, and solid distinctive peaks.
through all data points and thus lines show the analyte spectrum
the least squares fit gives a made up from the component Resolution
smoothed approximation to the spectra. As figure 1 shows, the derivative
original data points. This feature centroid bandwidth of the even-
can be used to counteract the Graphics order derivatives decreases with
degradation of signal-to-noise that As shown in figure 1 there is an increasing order. Relative to the
is inherent in the derivatization increase in the number of bands as zero-order spectrum the derivative
process (see below). The coeffi- higher orders of derivative are centroid bandwidth for a Gaussian
cients a0...al at each wavelength calculated. This increase in the band is observed to decrease to
multiplied by the factorial of the complexity of the derivative spectra 53 %, 41 %, and 34 % of the original
order are the derivative values: a1 can be very useful in qualitative bandwidth in the second, fourth,
is the first derivative, 2xa2 the analysis, either for characterizing and sixth orders respectively.
second derivative, 6xa3 the third materials or for identification.
derivative, and so on. Spectra that are very similar in This feature may be used in
absorbance mode may reveal qualitative analysis to identify the
Savitzky and Golay developed a significant differences in the presence of two analytes with very
very efficient method to perform derivative mode. similar lmax values that are not
the calculations and this is the resolved in the absorbance
basis of the derivatization algo- spectrum. Figure 2 shows a
rithm in most commercial instru- computer simulation.
ments. Other techniques for
calculating derivatives, for ex-
ample, using Fourier Transforms,
are available but are not commer-
1.5 Absorbance
cially popular.
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.0
300 400 500 600 700 300 400 500 600 700
Figure 3
Background elimination
Discrimination Scattering is inversely propor-
Probably the most important tional to the fourth (Rayleigh,
effect of the derivative process is small particles) or second
that broad bands are suppressed (Tyndall, larger particles) power of
relative to sharp bands and this the wavelength. Because the
suppression increases with relationship is inverse, the use of
increasing derivative order. derivatives will not eliminate the
scattering component from the
This arises from the fact that the spectrum as has been claimed in
amplitude, Dn, of a Gaussian band some publications. However,
in the nth derivative is inversely because the scattering component
proportional to the original resembles a very broad absor-
bandwidth, W, raised to the nth bance, using derivatives discrimi-
degree: nates against it and reduces its
effect on quantification.
1
Dn =
Wn
Matrix suppression
The analytical problem is often not
simply scattering, baseline shift, or
unwanted broad absorbing Absorbance
components. It is a combination of 1.0
two or more of these that results
in a broad absorbing background
matrix. 0.5
In qualitative analyses,
derivatization often allows the
detection and positive identifica- 0.0
tion of trace levels of a component
in the presence of a strongly
6.0E-05
absorbing matrix. This is illus- Absorbance
trated in Figure 6. A trace, 0.01 A,
4.0E-05
of a 40 nm NBW component with
lmax at 500 nm was added to a
2.0E-05
synthetic matrix. The matrix
comprised offset, second and
fourth-order scatter, and 320 nm 0.0E+00
NBW components with lmax at 300
and 600 nm. In absorbance mode -2.0E-05
the presence of this component is 200 400 600 800
virtually undetectable. In second-
order derivative mode its presence Figure 6
is obvious. Matrix supression
Instrument considerations Signal-to-noise ratio
Agilent Technologies
Innovating the HP Way