Comparison of NIR and FT-IR Spectral Models In the Prediction of Cotton Fiber Strength

Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, a useful technique due to the speed, ease of use, and adaptability to on-line or off-line implementation, has been applied to perform the qualitative classification and quantitative prediction on a number of cotton quality indices, including strength.  However, the resultant strength model from the NIR technique was observed to lack the power for practical applications. The low NIR model performance originates directly from at least one of two concerns, one is the NIR spectral absorptions without the strength information and another is the inappropriate strength reference determination. To this point, structure sensitive-FT-IR spectra and strength information on identical cotton species were collected, and the resultant FT-IR model was compared with NIR one.