Infrared spectroscopy distinguishing between compounds with

Infrared spectroscopy has been. combined with various other analytical techniques. Gas chromatography-infrared spectroscopy (GC-IR) allows the identification of the components eluting froiti a gas chromatograph. GC-IR has certain advantages over, say, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). While GC-MS is able to distinguish easily between compounds of different mass, it is unable to differentiate structural isomers of the same molecular mass. By comparison, GC-IR can easily distinguish such isomers. 

Any technique for gas analysis can be applied to EGA. The most frequently used methods are mass spectroscopy (MS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Many instrument manufacturers provide the ability to interface their TGAs with MS or FTIR (see Section 3.7, on instrumentation). Temporal resolution between the TGA and the MS or FTIR detector is an important feature, for example, in distinguishing absorbed water from water as a reaction product and in assigning a decomposition product to a specific mass loss. Each method has its experimental requirements, limitations, and advantages. Mass spectroscopy is a very sensitive technique that identifies volatile species by their mass-to-charge ratio, referred to as m/z. The evolution of the sum of all mJz species can be plotted and compared with the derivative TGA plot to ensure temporal resolution between the TGA and the mass spectrometer. The evolution of a specific mJz, associated with species such as water or formaldehyde, can show the distinct evolution of these compounds. The most common ionization is by 70eV electron impact (El), which operates... 

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