Comparison of photoacoustic, diffuse reflectance, attenuated total reflectance and transmission infrared spectroscopy for the study of biochars

Four infrared spectroscopic techniques - photoacoustic (PAS), diffuse reflectance (DRS), attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and transmission (TS) - were evaluated for the qualitative analysis of the biochar obtained from willow feedstock during pyrolysis. Increase in pyrolysis temperature resulted in more aromatic and carbonaceous structure of biochars. These changes could easily be detected from Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectral differences. The comparison of the spectra obtained by the four FT-IR techniques allowed to conclude that there are differences in the spectra acquired using different IR technique caused by different signal acquisition. PAS and ATR were the best techniques used in order to obtain spectra with smooth and sharp peaks, in contrast to TS, where bands were less-separated. DRS turned out to be the weakest of all techniques, due to poor spectral quality and poor separation of the bands.