HYPHENATED ON-THE-SPOT TG/FT-IR TECHNIQUE

By the coupling of thermogravimetry (TG) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), the thermal behavior of polymeric materials can be elucidated from their mass loss combined with characterization of the evolved components. A hyphenated TG/FT-IR technique is presented, which enables the direct detection and characterization of evolving components in TG experiments, i.e., without transferring these components from the TG to the FT-IR equipment. In this on-the-spot TG/FT-IR technique, the IR beam of the FT-IR spectrometer is led directly into the TG equipment. The IR beam is reflected by a mirror mounted inside the TG equipment and subsequently detected by a standard FT-IR detector. In this way, the evolved components are detected both in gas and condensed phase directly in the TG equipment. The detection limits are in the sub-mu-g/s range. The experimental setup and conditions are presented together with advantages and applications in the field of polymeric research.