Dear Readers (Volume 6 Edition 3)

After the papers on FTIR we had a query from Rob Lewis at the University of Glamorgan. He said.

I have enjoyed your articles on FT. You will be very familiar with the dispersive Finite Slit Effect in which bands have different apparent areas and shapes at low spectrometer resolutions. This is also observed in FT-IR spectra. What is the equivalent mechanism in FT? There is, of course, – no slit!

Rob, the data you need is given in the feature article on How FTIR works in this edition – see section 1.

An email from Sam Subramaniam asks…

The article on FTIR of proteins (secondary structure) is very useful. I would like to get references on structural proteins and their secondary structure determination using FTIR. Is there any work done on this topic. Has anyone worked on the secondary structure determination of hair or nail proteins? Is it possible at all? Thanks.

I’m sure the answer is yea to everything, but it’s not my area of expertise. Can anyone help? Please email Sam directly at ssubr [at] mail.miles.edu and copy me?

We have an email very recently from Nishi Bhardwaj in Australia. Can anyone help? You can email Nishi direct at nishi.bhardwaj [at] eng.monash.edu.au.

I am a pulp & paper engineering student just arrived at Monash Uni., Australia. I am getting interested in paper surface analysis using FTIR. Can various functional groups (say carboxyl & hydroxyl) be determined qualitatively & quantitatively as well in paper samples using FTIR and paper sample as such, I mean without any sample preparation. If yes, what would be suitable models of instrument for such quantitative analysis? How far these functional groups have bearing on paper strength properties?

Please keep sending your comments and questions, sometimes it may take a while for us to answer, but we will. All your questions and our replies are published here in Dear Readers.