title: FTIR-PAS: a powerful tool for characterising the chemical composition and predicting the labile C fraction of various organic waste products.
abstract: Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has been used for several years as a fast, low-cost, reliable technique for characterising a large variety of materials. However, the strong influence of sample particle size and the inability to measure the absorption of very dark and opaque samples have made FTIR unsuitable for many waste materials. FTIR-photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS) can eliminate some of the shortcomings of traditional FTIR caused by scattering effects and reflection issues, and recent advances in PAS technology have made commercial instruments available. In this study, FTIR-PAS was used to characterise a wide range of organic waste products and predict their labile carbon fraction, which is normally determined from time-consuming assays. FTIR-PAS was found to be capable of predicting the labile fraction of carbon as efficiently as near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and furthermore of identifying the compounds that are correlated with the predicted parameter, thus facilitating a more mechanistic interpretation.
authors: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg C DK-1871, Denmark.
authors: Georgios
authors: G
authors: Bekiaris
authors: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg C DK-1871, Denmark. Electronic address: sab@plen.ku.dk.
authors: Sander
authors: S
authors: Bruun
authors: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg C DK-1871, Denmark.
authors: Clément
authors: C
authors: Peltre
authors: INRA, UMR 1091 INRA, AgroParisTech Environment and Arable Crops, F-78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors: Sabine
authors: S
authors: Houot
authors: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg C DK-1871, Denmark.
authors: Lars S
authors: LS
authors: Jensen
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D061088:Photoacoustic Techniques; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014866:Waste Products; D002244:Carbon
keywords: C mineralisation; Compost; FTIR–photoacoustic spectroscopy; Organic amendment; Prediction