Development of carboxylic acid search prefilters for spectral library matching

► Carboxylic acid search prefilters were developed using wavelet transformed IR data. ► A genetic algorithm for pattern recognition and feature selection was used to identify the informative wavelet coefficients. ► Using this two step procedure, a carboxylic acid search prefiter with a high recognition rate was developed. ► Problems that have previously plagued carboxylic acid search prefilters have been addressed using the proposed two step procedure.