DISPOSABLE LIQUID MICROCELL FOR NEAR-INFRARED REFLECTANCE ANALYSIS.

The liquid microcell that has been described has a number of practical advantages. It is faster and easier to use than an ordinary liquid accessory. No heating or thermostatting is required, because 110 mu L of liquid rapidly reaches thermal equilibrium. No purging/filling or wash cycles are required. Any number of cells can be rapidly filled with a precision pipette if desired, and the cells can be easily cleaned or simply discarded afterward (an advantage for potentially dangerous and toxic samples). The configuration of the cell permits sensitive detection by enhancing transmission through the sample in a reflectance instrument. One compensates for the apparent lack of pathlength reproducibility for volatile samples simply by using a random selection of pathlengths when the training-set spectra are recorded and by letting the calibration process take care of the rest.