PDMS as an Alternate Transmittance Cell Kit in an FTIR Spectrometer

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based microdevices have bought revolutionary change in the chemical analysis. Suitable mechanical properties of PDMS make it amenable for soft lithography and certain optical properties like transparency in Near InfraRed (NIR) make it a yet unexplored option for use as a window material in Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) Spectrometers. We investigate the utility of PDMS as a transmittance cell kit in FTIR Spectrometer replacing the CaF2 windows. To prove the utility of PDMS as a window material in the NIR region, Samples of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) were analysed with the PDMS cell kit and the results were compared with the spectral analysis on same samples with a CaF2 kit and it was found that the performance of the PDMS kit is comparable to that of CaF2 cell kit. This opens up multiple opportunities for enabling low cost and rapid liquid sample analyses using PDMS based microfluidic devices directly as window material in an FTIR spectrometer.