Synchrotron radiation based Fourier-transform infrared (S-FTIR) microspectroscopy is a new-developed technique, which combines the advantages of FTIR spectroscopy and synchrotron light source. FTIR spectroscopy is an easy, fast, and well-established analytical method to be wildly used in many fields, especially has the ability to characterize different samples (for instance, organic and inorganic materials, or crystalline and amorphous materials) in the same time. On the other hand, the ultra brightness and high spatial resolution of synchrotron light source ensure S-FTIR microspectroscopy is capable of analyzing small samples or small sample areas that conventional FTIR cannot do. After 20 years of development, S-FTIR has been widely used in a variety of analytical chemistry field and obtained an abundant research results. In our previous review, we discussed the application of S-FTIR microspectroscopy in biomedical field, so here we review recent applications of S-FTIR microspectroscopy in some other analytical chemistry areas, including cultural heritage and archaeology, earth and space science, and chemistry and polymer science. It is no doubt that S-FTIR microspectroscopy has become a more and more useful tool to determine the structure of small samples or small sample areas. In the future, a multibeam synchrotron imaging system, which combine a multibeam synchrotron source with focal plane array (FPA) detectors, with a greatly improved spatial resolution by reducing the diffraction limited spot size an order of magnitude to 0.54 μm × 0.54 μm, may further show the merit of S-FTIR technique on the characterization of small samples or small sample areas in various research fields. Contents
1 Introduction
2 Synchrotron infrared light source
3 Applications in the cultural heritage and archeology field
4 Applications in the earth and space science field
5 Applications in the chemistry and polymer science field
6 Outlook