Why Potassium Bromide is used in Infrared Spectroscopy

IR spectroscopy is the measurement of the intensity and wavelength of absorption of mid-infrared lights by a sample either solid/liquid/gas. IR is carried out to determine the functional group of the sample component. Nowadays the FTIR can be done by directly putting samples on Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) or by using the potassium bromide (KBr) pellet technique.
Potassium bromide is commonly used in sample preparation as it is robust, chemically inert and it is transparent in near UV as well as long-wave IR wavelength. It has no optical absorption lines in its high transmission region and due to its wide spectral range, it is broadly used as infrared optical windows.

 

You may also like this

 

Advantage and disadvantage of IR spectroscopy
Why KBr used in IR spectroscopy
Why diamond crystal is the best choice for ATR
What are the advantages of ATR?
Why use NaCl plates in IR
Why are salt plates used in IR rather than glass?
Column chromatography solvent selection
Determination of pH using a glass electrode
Difference between IR and FTIR
Difference between IR and NMR Spectroscopy
Difference between isocratic and gradient elution
Difference between NMR and IR spectroscopy
Difference between Spectroscopy and Spectrometry
Difference between Absorption and Emission Spectrum
Difference between NMR and IR spectroscopy
Difference between UV and IR Spectroscopy
Difference between Chromatography and Spectroscopy
Difference between HPLC and LCM