The use of digital filtering techniques in the analysis of spectral data and multicomponent decay curves

Abstract

The aim of the present thesis is stated in its title : the qualitative and quantitative analysis of spectral data and multicomponent decay curves using digital filtering techniques. Because of the diversity of the studied data, the present manuscript is divided into two main parts : Part I describes the analysis of spectral data, and Part II deals with the unraveling of multicomponent decay curves. Both parts have the same structure : one chapter deals with the theory and implementation of the applied software in detail ; the following chapter presents the results of the procedures which are extensively tested on simulated data and are interpreted in order to fonnulate guide Jines for a successful analysis; and in a final chapter, the applicability of the proposed methods is illustrated in several experimental studies. In the first part, the FORTRAN 77 program ASDAP (Automated Spectral Data Analysis Program) developed by Dr. F. Janssens in our lab, has been further optimized, and its application on simulated and experimental studies is evaluated. ... The second part of the present work deals with a completely different universal problem, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of multicomponent decay curves. A first attempt to analyze these curves by digital filtering techniques, as they were used in ASDAP, showed promising results; nevertheless, it had to be abandoned The extensive study of two existing techniques (the methods of Gardner et al. and Prony), and their further improvements, induced the idea that the combination of both could result in a powerful technique for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of multicomponent decay curves. Digital filters fulfill only a small task in the improved method of Gardner et al. (GGM), however, their influence upon the final result should not be underestimated. Since nowadays, MatLab is the software language of choice of many chemometricians, the combination of the improved methods of Gardner and Prony has been programmed completely in MatLab 4.2cl. ...