The use of two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy to characterize instrumental differences

In looking for a way to examine the utility of commercial instrumentation capable of performing the measurement of stickiness in cotton, a means of evaluating the way these nine instruments performed against the research grade spectrometer was required. While all of the instruments had the potential analytical capability of measuring sticky cotton, some were more expensive than the industry would afford and would require even more costly hardening to be used in a cotton gin or spinning plant and some were concept commercial instruments without published performance data. Regardless, the calibration would need to be transferred to any of these new instruments. While there are existing algorithms to do this, it is imperative to understand the differences between instrument platforms. Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2DCOS) has been used to characterize instrumental differences which will affect performance, stability and reliability. The 2DCOS programs were re-written in MATLAB ver. 6.51 to get on a common format with the newer instruments and the special purpose instruments which utilize MATLAB for data functions. The instruments used in the complete calibration studies of sticky cotton and those that we examined as possible rugged small instruments were evaluated for their instrument function parameters. The possibilities for using 2DCOS for instrument characterization will be explored for the small instruments.