Quantitative vapor-phase infrared spectrometry of ammonia

Reference spectra of ammonia from four sources are compared. Low-resolution spectra (i.e., spectra for which the spectrometer resolution is numerically greater than the full-width at half-height of the rotational lines) were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) web site and from Infrared Analysis, Inc. High-resolution (0.12 cm-1) spectra were obtained from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Two protocols were used to validate the EPA and Infrared Analysis spectra, with one requiring that Beer's law be obeyed by the low-resolution spectrum and the other that Beer's law be obeyed by the high-resolution spectrum. In all cases, the second protocol gave a significantly better spectral match. It is shown that the path-integrated concentrations for the low-resolution reference spectra were in error by as little as 4% to as much as an order of magnitude, presumably because of the effect of adsorption on the cell walls. Measured absorptivities of the NIST and PNNL spectra were different by approximately 2.6% and it is believed that the effect of adsorption on these spectra is small. When the same protocols were used to test the reference spectrum of methane, the calculated path-integrated concentration was only approximately 2% different from the one that was calculated from the NIST reference spectrum, suggesting that the data processing protocols provide accurate data.