Preliminary study on quality evaluation of pecans with terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Bin Li; Wei Cao; Sunil Mathanker; Weili Zhang; Ning Wang

doi:10.1117/12.882201

15 November 2010 Preliminary study on quality evaluation of pecans with terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Bin Li, Wei Cao, Sunil Mathanker, Weili Zhang, Ning Wang

Proceedings Volume 7854, Infrared, Millimeter Wave, and Terahertz Technologies; 78543V (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.882201
Event: Photonics Asia 2010, 2010, Beijing, China

Abstract

This paper reports a preliminary work on a feasibility study of applying terahertz (THz) technology for pecan quality evaluation. A set of native pecan nuts collected in 2009 were used during the experiment. Each pecan nutmeat was manually sliced at a thickness of about 1mm, 2mm, and 3mm and a size of about 2cm (length) ×1cm (width). Pecan shell and inner separator were also cut into the same size. The absorption spectra for the nutmeat slices, shell, and inner separator were collected using a THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) developed by a group of researchers at Oklahoma State University. The test results show that nutmeat, shell, and inner separator had different absorption characteristics within the bandwidth of 0.2-2.0 THz. To study the capability of insect damage detection of the THz spectroscopy, the absorption spectra of insects (living manduca sexta and dry pecan weevil) were also collected. Due to high water contents in the insects, very obvious spectral characteristics were found. The results from the preliminary study show a potential of THz technology applied for quality detection of bio-products. However, since bio-products mostly have high water content and are handled under an environment with certain levels of water content, practical issues needs to be further investigated to make the THz technology a feasible tool for quality evaluation.

Citation Download Citation

Bin Li, Wei Cao, Sunil Mathanker, Weili Zhang, and Ning Wang "Preliminary study on quality evaluation of pecans with terahertz time-domain spectroscopy", Proc. SPIE 7854, Infrared, Millimeter Wave, and Terahertz Technologies, 78543V (15 November 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.882201

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