Spectrophotometer

A Spectrophotometer is an analytical instrument used to identify materials including organic polymers. Infrared spectrophotometers record the relative amount of energy as a function of the wavelength/frequency of the infrared radiation when it passes through a sample. Therefore, chemical structures of different samples will reflect differences in the IR absorption spectrum allowing for identification of a sample. Unlike a dispersive spectrometer, an FTIR spectrometer or FTIR spectrophotometer is used to simultaneously obtain spectral data of a sample. It does this by using an interferometer to collect the interferogram, also known as the raw data/signal format, which can then be translated into the infrared spectrum of the sample by means of a fourier transform algorithm. As a result there are many advantages including greater signal-to-noise ratio, high resolution, higher throughput, and a short wavelength limit. FTIR spectrometers can be used in a variety of industries including environmental, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical.