An Investigation of the Signal Obtained from a Flame Infrared Emission (FIRE) Detector

Abstract

The effect of temperature on the atmospheric asymmetric stretching vibration of carbon dioxide is studied by flame/furnace infrared emission (FIRE) spectroscopy, and a mathematical expression is developed for the resulting infrared emission signal produced by the FIRE detector. This theoretical model, which can easily be extended to other species besides carbon dioxide, is used to calculate the signal obtained for propane when the FIRE system is used as a detector for gas chromatography. Comparison of the calculated (70 μV) and experimentally observed (75.8 μV) chromatographic signal shows that the theoretical model should be of great value in improving and optimizing the FIRE detector.