FTIR Determination of Pollutants in Automobile Exhaust:An Environmental Chemistry Experiment Comparing Cold-Start and Warm-Engine Conditions

摘要

A recent survey of the chemical education literature indicated a need for the development and publication of laboratory experiments relating to air chemistry and air pollution(1).The following experiment illustrates the differences in automobile exhaust before and after the engine has been warmed,using gas-phase Fourier transform infrared spectros-copy(FTIR).The experiment was developed for an interdisciplinary course,Advanced Integrated Environmental Laboratory.This is an upper-division course offered jointly in the biology and chemistry departments and is required of all majors in environmental science.FTIR is becoming more available in the undergraduate laboratory(2,3)and an inexpensive gas cell recently has been described in the literature(4).Therefore this experiment could be modified for use in a variety of undergraduate laboratory courses.Students particularly enjoy testing the exhaust from their own cars and comparing them to the local emissions test.