Spectroscopy Techniques

Brian C. Smith, PhD, is Founder, CEO, and Chief Technical Officer of Big Sur Scientific. He is the inventor of the BSS series of patented mid-infrared based cannabis analyzers. Dr. Smith has done pioneering research and published numerous peer-reviewed papers on the application of mid-infrared spectroscopy to cannabis analysis, and sits on the editorial board of Cannabis Science and Technology. He has worked as a laboratory director for a cannabis extractor, as an analytical chemist for Waters Associates and PerkinElmer, and as an analytical instrument salesperson. He has more than 30 years of experience in chemical analysis and has written three books on the subject. Dr. Smith earned his PhD on physical chemistry from Dartmouth College. Direct correspondence to: 

Articles

The final part in this series of pitfalls to avoid and practicalities covers the importance of cleanliness, how many standards to run, how to spot outliers, and important experimental variables to control.

Quantitative Spectroscopy Pitfalls and Practicalities, Part IV: The Finale

Dr. Anthony Macherone of Agilent Technologies shares what he learned at Cannabis Science Conference East 2022.

Dr. Macherone on Cannabis Science Conference East Education and Future Growth Areas

The third part in this series of pitfalls to avoid and practicalities to know about discusses the importance of validating and checking your calibration to ensure quality.

Quantitative Spectroscopy Pitfalls and Practicalities, Part III:  Calibration Validation and Calibration Checks

Patricia Atkins is a Senior Applications Scientist with SPEX CertiPrep and a member of both the AOAC and ASTM committees for cannabis.

In this column, we attempt to explore in depth the theory and methodology of our common laboratory techniques and show how an understanding of interworking of those techniques allow for more flexibility in analysis.


Energy and Elements, Part I: Understanding Atomic Spectroscopy

Part II of this series discusses how to measure absorbances properly, and compares the use of peak heights and peak areas in creating calibrations.

Quantitative Spectroscopy: Practicalities and Pitfalls, Part II

Here we discuss the importance of using standards that bracket the expected concentration range of standards in the unknowns, using the same chemical components in standards and unknowns, and making sure to minimize the error in concentration measurements of standards.

Quantitative Spectroscopy: Practicalities and Pitfalls, Part I

Part III discusses more on Beer’s Law and why absorptivity is important along with some of its advantages and limitations.

Beer’s Law, Part III: Demystifying the Absorptivity

In part II of this series, we establish the physical basis of Beer’s Law and derive it from first principles then wrap up with a discussion of how the assumptions made in the derivation affect Beer’s Law experiments.

Beer’s Law, Part II: Physical Basis and Derivation

In this introduction to Beer’s Law, we review its use, history, and begin to cover the theory behind the equation.

The Most Important Equation in Potency Analysis is Beer’s Law: An Introduction

A discussion on the selection of a “golden” potency method including what this method should look like, how we should go about choosing it, and more.