Comparison between Two FT-IR Spectroscopy Analytical Procedures for Micrograms Determination of Asbestos Species in Bulk Materials

The Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy is by far known to be a useful technique for qualitative and quantitative analysis of asbestos in bulk samples, since all asbestos species exhibit intense absorption peaks in the 4000 400 cm region of the infrared spectrum. In the present work, we compare the accuracy and precision of two analytical procedures (the Linear Calibration Curve Method and the Method of Addition) for the quantitative determination of asbestos in a host matrix. We have found that, providing careful samples preparation, both techniques quantify the asbestos content at the level of few micrograms with good precision. Due to less expensive equipment requirements and shorter analysis time, FT-IR can be a competitive analytical technique in the characterization of asbestos containing material with the respect to diffractometry or electron microscopy.