ABSTRACT
Spectroscopic techniques are widely used by chemists to identify a completely unknown polymer and may be used to determine configurational states or the presence of a particular functional group or to detect free radicals or additives. Double beam optics has been traditionally used in the design of spectrometers and follows a general principle and is used in ultraviolet-visible and in infrared spectrometers as well as in other related instruments such as microdensitometer’s. In a spectrometer that measures the intensity absorbed as a function of the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation there are some problems that can be resolved by using double beam optics. The problem regarding the sequential acquisition of spectral information can be markedly reduced by using Fourier Transform spectroscopy in which data for a wide band of wavelengths are gathered simultaneously. The Fourier Transform technique is the method of choice in infrared instruments and in principle can be applied to a number of different spectroscopic techniques.
