Guidance, Precautions, and Limitations

For all its utility in pulling apart overlapped peaks, if deconvolntion is not performed properly it can distort and destroy spectral data. This discnssion will give you guidance on how to nse deconvolution properly, and familiarize you with its limitations. Recall from Chapter 2 that all FTIR spectra are measnred at a given instrumental 

FIG U RE 3.26 Bottom A properly deconvolved spectrum. Top An ovetdeconvolved version of the same spectrum. 

FIGURE 3.27 Bottom The deconvolved spectrum of the Lexan/polystyrene mixture. Top The 2nd derivative of the original mixture spectrum. Note how the negative lobes in the 2nd derivative point at the four peaks in the deconvolved spectrum. 

In summary, it has been shown that deconvolution can be used to pull apart overlapped features and help in the interpretation of mixture spectra. However, remember the limitatious of this technique and the precautions that must be followed to use it properly. On the whole, deconvolution is a useful spectral manipulation technique when used with proper precautions. 

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