Diffuse-reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy: new technique of sample preparation

Abstract A new technique of measurement of the diffuse-reflectance infrared FT spectra, based on the preparation of a cylinder from the mixture of the sample and powdered KBr under pressure of about 5.85 MPa, has been tested. During the measurement, the axis of the formed cylinder is perpendicular to the direction of the incident light. A repeatability of the measurement of selected bands and also of the background was investigated for hydroquinone, nicotinamide, silica gel, rice, tea and also lyophilized human aqueous humour. The relative standard deviations of log ( 1 R ) showed a dependence on the character of the measured compound, but in general were comparable or slightly better than those obtained by the standard method of loosely packed cups. The values were better than 1.5% in the most cases. The main advantage of the proposed technique lies in its simplicity and rapidity of obtaining statistically significant data.