Analysis of organic vapors in the workplace by remote sensing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

A Remote Sensing-Fourier Transform Infrared (RS-FTIR) system was applied to identify and quantify air contaminants along the beam, ranging from single compounds to mixtures, in various workplaces. Gas chromatography (GC) was used to provide information of point concentration variation by means of analyzing charcoal tube samples placed along the beam path. The results indicated a correlation between the charcoal tube-GC and the RS-FTIR for the analysis of most compounds. Discrepancies were found for some compounds, such as acetone, due to inhomogeneous concentration distributions along the IR beam, and due to the overlap of the acetone signal with off-scale water peaks. The study also demonstrated that there was little effect on quantitative analysis from partial or complete IR beam blockages during measurement. Qualitative analysis of unexpected compounds using RS-FTIR was also evaluated. In addition, the ability of the RS-FTIR to detect a sudden release of chemicals was demonstrated in the study.