FTIR Applications

You can keep your students engaged and working efficiently with the intuitive Nicolet Summit FTIR Spectrometer or other Nicolet series FTIR spectrometers and lesson plans that help you demonstrate everything from identifying different organic functional groups to understanding all the peaks in high-resolution gas phase spectra. To prevent idle time even with a limited number of spectrometers, you can have your students quickly measure samples in the crowded teaching lab and then analyze their data later remotely using the Thermo Scientific OMNIC Anywhere Cloud-based Application.

Use FTIR analysis to perform research or quality control to help optimize your lithium battery alternatives (e.g., Li–S, Li–O2, Na-ion) and electrolyte formulations, or your catalytic systems. You can inspect product quality and collect chemical information that assures your stakeholder’s specifications have been met. The non-destructive nature of FTIR spectroscopy makes this an ideal technique for quickly catching changes that can affect battery life and safety.

With the right accessories, you can perform dynamic electrochemical studies; operate your system under operando conditions (operating live); examine catalysts under controlled environmental conditions, including temperature and atmosphere; examine the behavior of different regions of energy storage cells, or analyze gaseous emissions released under overheating/overvoltage or mechanical damage.

Our use of plastics in everyday items and manufacturing processes has resulted in a deluge of slowly degradable materials entering our environment and our food chain. As plastics break down into tiny particles (<5 mm diameter) the consequences on human, animal, and ecosystem health need to be studied. FTIR spectroscopy has proven to be a powerful tool for researchers in this field worldwide, used for monitoring air quality, testing water quality, and analyzing soil to address environmental and health concerns caused by increasing pollution levels.

Use FTIR analysis to simplify microplastics testing and accelerate your research. We supply tools from sample collection (filers), material libraries, automated analysis, and extensive reporting for stakeholders.

Depending upon your needs, we offer FTIR libraries for particle identification, sample collection tools for aqueous sample filtration, high-speed data collection via imaging on the Thermo Scientific Nicolet iN10 Infrared Microscope, and rapid data collection and extensive reporting for large areas with the Thermo Scientific Nicolet RaptIR FTIR Microscope.

Innovative Solutions for Microplastics Analysis eBook

This eBook thoroughly explores microplastic pollution and demonstrates the impact of innovative vibrational microspectroscopy techniques on this field of research.

Companies in the food and feed industries are under increasing pressure to produce products that meet customer specifications while increasing plant production and profitability. 

Food manufacturers can use the infrared attenuated total reflectance (ATR) technique for rapid determination of the trans-fat content of manufactured food products. This analysis is instrumental for compliance with food labeling requirements and to help promote healthy eating habits.

All forensic toxicology laboratories are not created equal. Whether you need to screen and confirm known compounds, identify unknowns, or advance forensic research, we offer a solution to meet your current and future needs. 

Make complete and confident identification of seized materials and trace evidence from narcotics to paint chips. Combining both FTIR and Raman in a single system provides two SWGDRUG/SWNAT Class A Instrumental methods to positively identify physical evidence. The Thermo Scientific Nicolet iS50 FTIR Spectrometer, deployed with a diamond ATR module and spectral search libraries, can be used to rapidly identify materials. Distinguish illicit drug isomers with GC-IR and analyze complex mixtures using multi-component search with Thermo Scientific OMNIC Specta Software.

FTIR and Raman Spectroscopy in Forensics and Trace Materials Analysis on-demand webinars

Know What You've Got: Unbiased Harm Reduction with FTIR

Use FTIR spectroscopy to perform gas analysis on a variety of samples, like well emissions, and ambient air monitoring.  Whether you conduct fire science research, analyze emissions, or need to verify the purity of gases for semiconductor manufacturing, FTIR spectroscopy provides the insight you need to advance your research or keep your business competitive. FTIR spectroscopy produces a spectrum for gas samples that represents the molecular absorption and transmission response to certain wavelengths of light, creating a molecular “fingerprint” of the sample. This makes the technique useful for applications that require: 

• High sensitivity from parts per trillion to percent
• Real-time measurements
• Monitoring of hundreds of compounds simultaneously 
• High dynamic range 
• Continuous monitoring of gas samples in environmental or process applications
• Fully automated monitoring with no need for calibration

Confidently identify different grades of jade or uncover the composition of a mineral sample using FTIR spectrometers. Find out how the  Gemological Institute of America (GIA) uses FTIR spectroscopy for identifying treated versus untreated gemstones. 

The current decade has seen incredible growth in life science research and bioformulations.  Analysis of biological samples like proteins, lipids, tissues, cells, and various cell extracts can be easily carried out using FTIR spectroscopy. Various types of analysis like protein structure elucidation, protein stability, protein-protein interaction, lipid modifications, tissue imaging, analyzing plant extracts, and many more can be accomplished with various models of Nicolet FTIR spectrometers and microscopes.  Each of the analyses mentioned may have different sensitivity, physicochemical ruggedness, and throughput requirements. We customize our offering based on every lab’s current and future requirements.

Understanding a material's chemistry and characteristics is a crucial first step of many analytical processes. From automotive to microelectronics applications, our FTIR spectrometers can help you better understand the materials you’re working with. 

Some examples include characterizing new materials; measuring a variety of properties of semiconductor materials such as CO concentration and thin film thickness and concentration; investigating energy storage solutions like lithium-ion batteries; utilizing automation to measure multiple spectral ranges to measure materials from the far-IR to visible range; measuring changes in materials due to curing, oxidation, and degradation; rapidly measuring changes in the millisecond to nanosecond time scale; characterizing bio composite materials; measuring emittance from semiconductor lasers and other advanced photonic devices; and studying properties of advanced polymeric materials.

Characterize the composition of polymer and chemical systems from development of new materials to root cause analysis of product failure. Understand what chemical properties you need to control when designing new materials with advanced features. Catch changes in additive formulations, degradation of multi-layer polymer composites, weakened packaging materials, and the effects of process curing times on polymer specifications.

Petrochemical and chemical labs are running complex analyses, held to rigorous standard test methods, from crude oil, natural gas, and naphtha, to a wide range of chemicals or polymers. Our analytical instruments and software products allow you to streamline your analysis and optimize your plant production output by enabling quick and definitive identification of compounded plastics, blends, fillers, paints, rubbers, coatings, resins, and adhesives; identification of material defects via multiple spectroscopic techniques and spectral identification tool, complex mixture analysis utilizing the OMNIC Specta Multi-component Search feature; and more.

Research applications require a myriad of options and flexibility. We enable design of specialized experiments and offer the full range of operations, both spectral (from the visible to the very far IR) and temporal (from msec to nsec data collection). Whether you are characterizing ultra-thin films, directing a beam through a vacuum chamber, or analyzing dynamic changes in chemical bonds the Nicolet iS50 FTIR Spectrometer can be configured to support your needs, including chemical reaction monitoring, measurement of emittance from semiconductor lasers and other photonic devices, investigation of energy storage solutions such as lithium-ion batteries, and other research applications.

FTIR is uniquely suited to the analysis of silicon and other electronics components. Our tools can analyze wafers for the carbon or oxygen content, the epitaxial coating thickness, and more. Special designs permit handling of production wafers or smaller discs with various data collection patterns enabled. Our tools for semiconductor research include the ability to analyze wafers up to 300 mm in diameter; various analysis patterns; C, O, and EPI analysis methods (quantitative tools); analysis of 6” discs using purged accessories; and extensive experience in the field of semiconductors by FTIR.