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What is so different about NIR spectroscopy versus UV-VIS?

In the UV-VIS range atoms and molecules go through electronic transitions. When we measure the absorption of a chemical we are really measuring the change that the electrons undergo from being excited from one energy level to a higher energy level. We can visibly see this phenomenon in fluorescence spectroscopy (excited state to ground state). Objects have a certain color because of the light it reflects and absorbs (ground state to an excited state). There are many different applications for UV and VIS spectroscopy – including chemical absorbance, colorimetry, and fluorescence.

While UV-VIS spectroscopy measures the change in state of an electron, NIR spectroscopy measures the vibration of the atoms. As light is absorbed the molecules vibrate and create molecular overtone bands. Because these bands can be broad and complex we can use chemometric methods to determine composition of samples. Creating these calibrations can be laborious – but we can help with our SMART-NIRS calibrations.  With NIR spectroscopy there is very little to no sample preparation. It is easy to analyze the composition of solids, liquids or powders. Common uses are composition analysis in agriculture, plastic sorting and recycling, and pharmaceutical and nutraceutical identification.