Rapid and accurate determination methods based on data fusion of laser-induced breakdown spectra and near-infrared spectra for main elemental contents in compound fertilizers

Zhuopin Xu; Xiaohong Li; Weimin Cheng; Guangxia Zhao; Liwen Tang; Yang Yang; Yuejin Wu; Pengfei Zhang; Qi Wang

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2023.125004

Rapid and accurate determination methods based on data fusion of laser-induced breakdown spectra and near-infrared spectra for main elemental contents in compound fertilizers

Talanta. 2024 Jan 1;266(Pt 1):125004. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2023.125004. Epub 2023 Jul 29.

Authors

Zhuopin Xu¹, Xiaohong Li², Weimin Cheng³, Guangxia Zhao⁴, Liwen Tang⁵, Yang Yang⁶, Yuejin Wu⁷, Pengfei Zhang⁸, Qi Wang⁹

Affiliations

¹ Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China. Electronic address: xuzp@iim.ac.cn.
² Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China; University of Science and Technology of China, No. 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, China. Electronic address: lixiaohong@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
³ Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China; University of Science and Technology of China, No. 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, China. Electronic address: chengweimin1988@126.com.
⁴ Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China; University of Science and Technology of China, No. 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, China. Electronic address: zhaoguangxia@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁵ Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China; Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China. Electronic address: q21301372@stu.ahu.edu.cn.
⁶ Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China. Electronic address: yangyang19860207@163.com.
⁷ Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China. Electronic address: yjwu@ipp.ac.cn.
⁸ Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China. Electronic address: pfzhang@aiofm.ac.cn.
⁹ Anhui Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Control Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China. Electronic address: wangqi@ipp.ac.cn.

PMID: 37541006
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2023.125004

Abstract

Compound fertilizer occupies a dominant position in the structure of fertilizer products in China. The contents of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the key indicators affecting the fertilization efficiency and the price of compound fertilizers. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) are two rapid analytical techniques suitable for online monitoring of the above components in compound fertilizer. However, accurate LIBS analysis needs to overcome matrix effects and interference from environmental elements, and NIRS also has the limitation of not being able to directly detect inorganic components in compound fertilizers. The combination of LIBS and NIRS techniques, namely LIBS-NIRS data fusion, has the potential to reduce interferences in the detection of single spectroscopic techniques and further improve the analysis accuracy. This study compared the LIBS-NIRS data fusion methods under different optimization conditions, and found that CARS-OPF (competitive adaptive reweighted sampling combined with outer product fusion) and CARS-EWF (competitive adaptive reweighted sampling combined with equal weight fusion) are two effective intermediate data fusion methods which can achieve better quantitative analysis results than single spectroscopic methods. The root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium contents in compound fertilizers by using CARS-OPF are 0.901, 0.693, and 1.52, respectively, and the RMSEP for those indicators by using CARS-EWF are 0.934, 0.719, and 1.60, respectively. In these two methods, the LIBS and NIRS characteristic variables of compound fertilizers are firstly screened by CARS algorithm, and then intermediate data fusion was carried out by using equal weight fusion or outer product fusion. Redundant variables in the original data can be well removed in the data fusion process to ensure the accuracy of the analysis. Therefore, the combined methods of LIBS-NIRS based on CARS-OPF and CARS-EWF could be well applied to the rapid and accurate detection of main elemental contents in compound fertilizers.

Keywords: Compound fertilizer; Data fusion; Elemental content; Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; Near-infrared spectroscopy.