FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROMETRY - A VERSATILE TECHNIQUE FOR REAL-WORLD SAMPLES

The versatility of FTIR spectrometry was explored by considering a var iety of samples drawn from industrial applications, materials science and biomedical research. These samples included polymeric insulators, bauxite ore, clay, human hair and human skin. A range of sampling tech niques suitable for these samples is discussed, in particular FTIR mic roscopy, FTIR emission spectroscopy, attenuated total reflectance and photoacoustic FTIR spectrometry, The power of modern data processing t echniques, particularly multivariate analysis, to extract useful infor mation from spectral data is also illustrated.