Qualitative analysis reveals the chemical identity of the species in the sample, while quantitative analysis establishes the relative amount of one or more of these species in numerical terms.
Qualitative information is required before a quantitative analysis can be undertaken.
It is unusually fast compared to other analytical techniques, it is nondestructive, and often no sample preparation is required. Themes for the research in NIRS and chemometrics include 1. Development of analytical methods using NIRS, replacing traditional wet chemical methods. Studying the relationship between chemical changes in a sample and changes in the NIR spectrum. Refinements of the chemometric methods used to process the NIRS data.