Method · FTIR
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy in the Netherlands
Chemical-bond and molecular-group identification using infrared absorption or reflection. What it answers, what it cannot establish on its own, what a laboratory will ask, and how many Dutch facilities publish it.
What it answers
- Which organic compounds or functional groups are present — a polymer, an oil, a release agent?
- Has a polymer oxidised, degraded or changed its cure state?
- What is an unknown organic residue on a surface, when there is enough of it to measure?
What it cannot establish alone
- Elemental composition
- Pure metals and materials or vibrational modes with no infrared-active bands
- Trace contamination below roughly a percent
- An unqualified degree-of-cure claim without a known chemistry, reference spectrum or cure-sensitive band
Before you contact a laboratory
What a laboratory will ask.
A laboratory can say whether it can help only when these are known. Unknowns are fine; say so.
- Material and suspected identity
- Identification, contamination, degradation or cure-state objective
- Sample form
- Surface or bulk sensitivity
- For cure comparison, the expected chemistry and any known cure-sensitive functional group or reaction band
A question a laboratory can answer
An oily film appears on moulded polymer parts after storage. We want to know whether it is a plasticiser, a release agent or a lubricant, comparing an affected part with a clean one.
Potential Dutch facilities
4 facilities publish FTIR capability in Nijmegen, Amsterdam and Groningen.
Leads are based on published capabilities; current suitability and availability must be confirmed with the laboratory.
Describe your sample and question. The first answer is free and needs no account; laboratory names are shown in a free workspace.
Often combined with
- Raman spectroscopyMolecular, vibrational, phase, and stress information from Raman scattering.
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopyElemental composition and chemical state of the near-surface region, optionally with sputter depth profiling.
- Differential scanning calorimetryThermal transitions such as glass transition, melting, crystallization, and cure.
Problems where it helps
- Surface contamination: identifying what is thereWhich surface-sensitive measurements identify a residue, oxide or trace contaminant, what each cannot see, and what to prepare.