Process for spectrophotometric analysis

A process for obtaining near infrared spectral information and quantifying the physical properties of a sample comprising:

• launching polychromatic light having a wavelength ranging from about 800 nanometers to about 2500 nanometers alternately through a single fiber optic strand and at least one sample channel and at least one reference channel, through at least two high-efficiency mechanical motion mechanism fiber optic switches;
• directing said sample to a sample cell;
• passing said polychromatic light along said sample channel to said sample cell wherein said polychromatic light is passed through said sample and sample spectral information produced;
• attenuating said polychromatic light along said reference channel and producing attenuated reference spectral information for balancing polychromatic light transmission between said reference and sample channels;
• reproducibly and uniformly imaging said sample spectral information from said sample channel and said attenuated reference spectral information alternately by passing said spectral information through a mode scrambler;
• processing said uniformly imaged sample and attenuated reference spectral information from said mode scrambler in a spectrograph wherein said uniformly imaged spectral information is diffracted into component wavelengths and the light intensity at each wavelength determined and recorded utilizing a photodiode array detector;
• and
• utilizing a chemometric model and said diffracted and recorded uniformly imaged spectral information to predict said physical properties of said sample.

A process for obtaining near infrared spectral information and quantifying the physical properties of a sample comprising:

• launching polychromatic light having a wavelength ranging from about 800 nanometers to about 1100 nanometers alternately through at least one sample channel and one reference channel, through a single fiber optic strand and at least two high-efficiency latching type mechanical motion fiber optic switches;
• directing said sample to a sample cell;
• passing said polychromatic light along said sample channel to said sample cell wherein said polychromatic light is passed through said sample at least twice utilizing a light reflection device, wherein said polychromatic light contacting said light reflection device is reflected at least twice, and sample spectral information produced;
• attenuating said polychromatic light along said reference channel and producing attenuated reference spectral information for balancing polychromatic light transmission between said reference and sample channels;
• reproducibly and uniformly imaging said sample spectral information from said sample channel and said attenuated reference spectral information alternately by passing said spectral information through a mode scrambler;
• processing said uniformly imaged sample and attenuated reference spectral information from said mode scrambler in a spectrograph wherein said uniformly imaged spectral information is diffracted into component wavelengths and the light intensity at each wavelength determined and recorded utilizing a photodiode array detector;
• and
• utilizing a chemometric model and said diffracted and recorded uniformly imaged spectral information to predict said physical properties of said sample.