The low concentration determination of nitrous oxide and volatile anaesthetics by FTIR spectroscopy

Abstract

An FTIR method is described and evaluated for the low concentration analysis of volatile anaesthetics (halothane, isoflurane) and nitrous oxide. It has been found that no serious problem occurs in the trace determination of volatile anaesthetics but nitrous oxide introduces lack of sensitivity (<10 ppm) and non linearity problems at lower concentrations (<40 ppm) in the described analysis method.