Determination of ethyl formate in magnesium chloride used as Ziegler-Natta catalyst support by Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance spectrometry

FT-IR Spectroscopy with total attenuated reflectance (ATR) was used for the quantitative determination of ethyl formate coordinated in inorganic matrices such as magnesium chloride. The spectra were recorded directly on solutions obtained by dissolving the inorganic Ziegler-Natta supports in water. The method proposed is sensitive and rapid and appears to be very reliable when compared with other methods, such as solvent extraction followed by gaschromatographic or thermogravimetric analysis.