How New Advances In FTIR Sampling Technology Can Make Your Life Easier

Most of us remember what it was like in our undergraduate labs using an FTIR. You were either given an FTIR scan and expected to assess the compound for functional groups, or if you were lucky enough, you were allowed to make a KBr pellet using a bolt press and run your own sample. This was a time-consuming process, but you were able to ascertain a lot of information from this process if you were successful. Being able to determine functional groups and the different types of bonds in your unknown compound was of great value to you in those days. In this stage of your career as a scientist, you more than likely know what compounds you are dealing with and don't really have the time to make KBr pellets. So why is FTIR still a valuable tool for many scientists?

FTIR has become a more useful tool in the past 20-25 years. The use of ever-faster CPUs and math co-processors make taking a spectrum very fast, only limited now by the movement of the interferometer. Dispersive instruments that predated the FT-IR are hard to find these days and are too time consuming to use versus FTIR. Typical spectrum acquisition on these older instruments could take several minutes. One of the major benefits of using an FTIR is the Jacquinot or throughput advantage (Smith, 1996). Since all of the infrared radiation is allowed through the instrument at one time instead of being dependent on the slit width as with the older dispersive style, all of the IR energy passes through the system enabling the use of a wider variety of accessories than previously possible.