Concept and properties of an infrared hybrid single-beam spectrum and its application to eliminate solvent bands and other background interferences

An infrared hybrid single-beam spectrum (ϕh) has been defined as a mixture of two single-beam spectra (ϕb1 and ϕb2) of the same sample but of different pathlengths (b1 and b2), namely, ϕh=αϕb1+(1−α)ϕb2 . The unique advantage of the hybrid spectrum is that its intensity is closely related to the component factor alpha (α). Thus, a hybrid background spectrum with any desired intensity can be easily obtained simply by choosing an appropriate component factor. Thus, it provides a convenient way of eliminating solvent/background interferences completely.