
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR Spectrometer), abbreviated as Fourier Infrared Spectrometer. It is different from the principle of dispersive infrared spectroscopy, and is an infrared spectrometer developed based on the Fourier transform of interfered infrared light. It mainly consists of an infrared light source, aperture, interferometer (beam splitter, moving mirror, fixed mirror), sample chamber, detector, as well as various infrared mirrors, lasers, control circuit boards, and power supplies. It can perform qualitative and quantitative analysis on samples and is widely used in fields such as pharmaceuticals and chemical engineering, geology and mining, petroleum, coal, environmental protection, customs, gemstone identification, criminal investigation and identification.
Basic principle:
The light emitted by the light source is split into two beams by a beam splitter (similar to a half mirror), one beam transmitted to the moving mirror and the other beam reflected to the fixed mirror. Two beams of light are reflected separately by a fixed mirror and a moving mirror before returning to the beam splitter. The moving mirror moves in a straight line at a constant speed, resulting in an optical path difference between the two beams after being split by the beam splitter, causing interference. The interference light passes through the sample cell after converging in the beam splitter, and the interference light containing sample information reaches the detector after passing through the sample. Then, the signal is processed by Fourier transform to obtain the infrared absorption spectrum of transmittance or absorbance with wave number or wavelength.
Main features:
High signal-to-noise ratio
The Fourier transform infrared spectrometer uses fewer optical components and does not have gratings or prism splitters, which reduces light loss and further increases the signal of light through interference. Therefore, the radiation intensity reaching the detector is high and the signal-to-noise ratio is high.
Good reproducibility
The Fourier transform infrared spectrometer uses Fourier transform to process the light signal, avoiding the errors caused by motor-driven grating splitting, so the reproducibility is relatively good.
Fast scanning speed
Fourier transform infrared spectrometer collects data in the entire frequency band, and the obtained spectrum is the average of multiple data acquisitions. It only takes one to a few seconds to complete a complete data acquisition, while dispersive instruments require testing only a narrow frequency range at any moment, and a complete data acquisition takes ten to twenty minutes.