ATR-FTIR, HPLC, and NMR for Mechanistic Insights to Reactions
Application Editorial

Combining ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy, HPLC, and NMR

Application Editorial

Mechanistic Insights to Reactions

In many instances, the path to reaction understanding requires the construction of accurate reaction profiles for each species that are expressed as concentration versus time, leading to the determination of reaction kinetics. As in-situ FTIR spectroscopy generates data under actual reaction conditions, it is unique and orthogonally complementary to HPLC, NMR and other offline analytical data. The combination of analytical data with critical information provided by the in-situ FTIR technique provides answers to challenging mechanistic or reaction kinetics studies.

In this review, two recently published examples are introduced from researchers at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Scripps Research Institute, and the University of Wisconsin. The examples highlight how in-situ FTIR spectroscopy was used in conjunction with traditional offline analytical techniques to gain valuable insight, mechanistic understanding, and model validation of the chemical reactions being studied.