Manufacturer and distributor of life science research and clinical diagnostic products, Bio-Rad, has announced a new feature to improve the interpretation of infrared (IR) and Raman spectra in version 8.3 of its KnowItAll software. The latest release – an addition to the AnalyzeIt spectral interpretation applications for IR, Raman, and IR Polymer compounds – enables users to improve spectral interpretations by building knowledgebase of functional groups and corresponding bands from their own data to use in conjunction with KnowItAll's built-in knowledgebase.
‘This new feature will ensure that users can obtain the best spectral interpretation possible for unknown samples using IR or Raman spectroscopy,’ explained Gregory M. Banik, general manager of Bio-Rad Informatics. ‘It is particularly useful to those in the polymer and other industries where the compounds analysed are proprietary ones whose functional groups may not be included in the commercial KnowItAll knowledgebases. By building an additional knowledgebase with an organisation's own functional group moieties, the interpretation becomes as precise as it can be for unique compounds,’ Banik added.
The researcher begins by loading an unknown spectrum and clicking on a peak of interest. AnalyzeIt then compares this peak to its knowledgebases of likely functional groups occurring at that peak position. The researcher can then visually compare the regions of all peaks associated with each proposed functional group to their unknown spectrum and evaluate how well they match. They can then recursively build an interpretation profile for that compound by examining additional peaks and tagging the most likely functional group candidates that best describe the compound. This method of analysis can be used successfully alone or with other methods of spectral identification.
