In bioanalytical chemistry, a detailed chemical understanding of biomaterials is often difficult to obtain due to the sheer number of analytes contained in a sample along with the samples' generally low reproducibility. This study presents a Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic technique in conjunction with innovations in sample preparation and chemometric data preprocessing to overcome these limitations. These methodologies were applied to quantitative analyses of 31 representative compounds commonly found in biomaterial, which have been incorporated into a spectroscopic calibration database, that is, albumin (protein); D-alanine, glycine, histidine, valine, arginine, cysteine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, methionine, L-glutamine, and glutamic acid, (amino acids); glucose, fructose, galactose, mannose, sucrose, lactose, glycogen, agarose, and starch (carbohydrates); DNA (salmon sperm), sulphonoquinovosyl diglyceride ( sulpho-lipid ), and 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-L-serine ( phospho-lipid ); succinic acid and malic acid ( carboxylic acids ); glycolic acid (a -hydroxy acid), sodium pyruvate, b -carotene, frustules (microalgae silica-shells), and ammonium formate. Two proof-of-principle applications were based on calibration models incorporating these solids, i.e., characterization of E. coli and microalgae. The former aims for detection of bacterial contamination and the latter to enable investigations of changes in chemical composition of microalgae cells in response to shifting environmental conditions. Chemometric preprocessing steps have been developed for handling sample-to-sample fluctuations of absorption path lengths and baselines; the former incorporated mass normalization while the latter utilized a novel baseline correction method that requires no a priori information. Data preprocessing, chemometric calibration, and evaluation algorithms have been combined, together with an extensive spectral database of the aforementioned compounds (∼1500 samples), for quantitative calibration purposes through the remotely accessible Virtual Chemometrics Lab , which can be utilized for a multitude of applications through a graphical user interface.

High pressure hydrogen effects on the friction and wear of polymers are of importance to myriad applications. Of special concern are those used in the infrastructure for hydrogen vehicle refueling stations, including compressor sliding seals, valves, and actuators. While much is known about potentially damaging embrittlement effects of hydrogen on metals, relatively little is known about the effects of high pressure hydrogen on polymers. However, based on the limited results that are published in the literature, polymers also apparently exhibit compatibility issues with hydrogen. An additional study is needed to elucidate these effects to avoid incompatibilities either through design or material selection. As part of this effort, we present here in situ high pressure hydrogen studies of the friction and wear on example polymers. To this end, we have built and demonstrated a custom-built pin-on-flat linear reciprocating tribometer and demonstrated its use with in situ studies of friction and wear behavior of nitrile butadiene rubber polymer samples in 28 MPa hydrogen. Tribology results indicate that friction and wear is increased in high pressure hydrogen as compared both with values measured in high pressure argon and ambient air conditions.

A new low-cost technique combining acoustic levitation and infrared thermography for studying the surface temperature of isolated droplets is outlined.