Optoelectronic methods in potential application in monitoring of environmental conditions

Allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever is a type of inflammation which occurs when the immune system overreacts to allergens in the air. It became the most common disease among people. It became important to monitor air content for the presence of a particular type of allergen. For the purposes of environmental monitoring there is a need to widen the group of traditional methods of identification of pollen for faster and more accurate research systems. The aim of the work was the characterization and classification of certain types of plant pollens by using laser optical methods, which were supported by the chemmometrics. Several species of pollen were examined, for which a database of spectral characteristics was created, using LIF, Raman scattering and FTIR methods. Spectral database contains characteristics of both common allergens and pollen of minor importance. Based on registered spectra, statistical analysis was made, which allows the classification of the tested pollen species. For the study of the emission spectra Nd:YAG laser was used with the fourth harmonic generation (266 nm) and GaN diode laser ( 375 nm). For Raman scattering spectra spectrometer Nicolet IS-50 with a excitation wavelength of 1064 nm was used. The FTIR spectra, recorded in the mid infrared(1) range (4000-650 cm(-1)) were collected with use of transmission mode (KBr pellet), ATR and DRIFT.