Analysis of multicomponent fluorescence data

Abstract

A method for the analysis of a fluorescent sample containing multiple components is presented which utilizes the experimental “Emission-Excitation Matrix”, M. The elements Mij of this matrix represent the fluorescent intensity measured at wavelength λj for excitation at λi. The number of independently emitting components may be obtained by a determination of the number of non-zero eigenvalues of the matrices MMT or MTM. If only two components are present a range of possible excitation and emission spectra for each may be obtained through a linear transformation of the eigenvectors of MMT and MTM. Analysis of real and simulated multicomponent data using the above strategies illustrates the potential of the techniques. Also, examples are given of how noise affects the outcome and how spectral overlaps lead to partial ambiguities in the derived spectra. © 1977, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.