The IR instrument (Spectrum One, Perkin Elmer) for 30CL is located in YH 6076.

If the measurement program has not been started yet, you can do so by double clicking the spectrum icon on the desktop. The program will ask if you want to acquire a new background spectrum. Make sure that there is nothing in the sample beam and then choose option ‘BACKGROUND’. It will take the instrument a few seconds to do so.

Next, choose the option ‘COLLECT’ to acquire your spectrum.

The next couple of screens you just confirm by clicking “NEXT” until you reach a screen with “TASK NAME”, “DESCRIPTION” and “LOCATION”. Choose your name as the task name, a descriptive title as a comment and “130BL” as location. Make sure that you place your sample in the beam and click on “FINISH”. The measurement will take about 10 seconds.

Then a window will pop up with different options. Choose “REMAIN IN SPECTRUM” to process the spectrum.

In order to be processed, the spectrum name has to be bold (highlighted) in the bottom window. Go to “PROCESS BASELINE” and choose option “AUTOMATIC” to do an automated baseline correction. A new spectrum will appear on the screen that has a flatter baseline. Next, go to the “VIEW LABEL PEAKS” option to get peaks labeled (that are beyond a certain threshold!). If need or want to label peaks in addition that have not be labeled by the automated process, go to “VIEW CURSOR VERTICAL CONTINUOUS”. A vertical line will appear that can be moved with the mouse. If you are at the peak that you want to label, go to “VIEW LABEL PEAKS” and the peak will be labeled. Lastly, click on the print icon to print the spectrum on the laser printer next to the FTIR instrument.

Uncorrected spectrum of 1-propanol

Baseline corrected and labeled spectrum of 1-propanol

If the program is already running, just hit the “SCAN” icon (or go to “INSTRUMENT SCAN”) to acquire a new spectrum. In the window that pops up, you have to change the name of the spectrum and the description.

In general, most of the buttons on the top are self-explanatory. The printing, scanning and most of the processing can be done from there as well.