Sulfonyl — FTIR absorption peaks and assignments

Quick answer

Sulfonyl is usually assigned by looking for a recurring cluster of characteristic peaks rather than one exact textbook number. The table below shows where the literature most often places this group in FTIR, ranked by accumulated evidence.

Characteristic FTIR peaks for Sulfonyl

Showing the 30 best-supported peaks of 35 total for Sulfonyl.

Spectrum logic

A functional-group assignment becomes more confident when several expected bands appear together. Use this page to find the strongest-supported peaks, then confirm that the same sample exhibits a coherent pattern rather than a single isolated hit.

Real-world usage

These pages are useful for unknown material analysis, peak explanation in reports, polymer troubleshooting, and verifying whether a candidate material family is chemically plausible.

Common mistakes

• Using one functional-group page as a complete material verdict without checking the rest of the spectrum.
• Assuming the strongest band is always the most diagnostic one.
• Forgetting that processing, additives, aging, and mixtures can shift or broaden expected peaks.

Verification advice

Use DSC, GC-MS, or TGA when several material families share similar bands or when mixture effects make the FTIR assignment uncertain.

Literature behind these assignments

• 1035 cm⁻¹ confidence 1.0

  “FTIR showed peak at 26 cm-1 1035 which corresponded to O=S=O stretching of sulphonic (-SO 3H) group.”

  Balan 等 - 2021 - Esterification of residual palm oil using solid ac DOI: 10.1016/j.jtice.2012.07.001.
• 1651 cm⁻¹ confidence 1.0

  “Meanwhile, the presence of the peak at the 1651 cm-1, were assigned asymmetric O=S=O sulfonic group in SPEEK was confirmed by the sharp peak at 1024.13 cm-1, which were stretching vibration.”

  Hasbullah 等 - 2016 - Synthesis and Characterizations of Electrospun Sul DOI: 10.1063/1.4948867
• 1020 cm⁻¹ confidence 1.0

  “cm-1 cm-1 new bands at 1020 and 1080 can be attributed to the asymmetric and symmetric stretching of the O=S=O group [17,22,23].”

  Vibrational spectroscopic study of pure and silica-doped sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membranes DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2014.12.004
• 1320 cm⁻¹ confidence 1.0

  “1406.20 3 C=C 1406.37 1406.20 asymmetric O=S=O stretching of sulfone group 1320.34 and 1297.21 1320.22 and 1297.15 4 asymmetric O=S=O stretch5 C-O-C 1238.25”

  Suhalim 等 - 2023 - Impact of Silver-Decorated Graphene Oxide (Ag-GO) DOI: 10.3390/membranes13060602
• 975 cm⁻¹ confidence 1.0

  “The symmetric symmetric and asymmetric S(=O) stretching vibration and asymmetric O=S=O stretching vibration peaks are 2 peaks and S-N-C absorptions, which appears at 975 cm-1, located at 1180 and 1359 respectively.”

  Tosa 等 - 2012 - Simultaneous Determination Of Some Artificial Swee DOI: 10.1063/1.3681976
• 1021 cm⁻¹ confidence 1.0

  “adsorption peak due to C-O stretching at 1105 By comparing spectra of polymer blend membrane with that for GA-cross-linked PVA membrane, new absorption bands are cm-1 noticed at 1021 and 1112 due to the symmetric and asymmetric O=S=O stretc”

  Highly Conductive Polyelectrolyte Membranes Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid) (PVA/PAMPS) for Fuel Cell Application DOI: 10.3390/polym13162638
• 1255 cm⁻¹ confidence 1.0

  “FTIR spectra of potato starch (1) and sodium salt of sulfated starch (2) In the FTIR spectra of sulfated starch, in contrast to the original starch, there is a highcm-1, intensity band at 1255 which belongs to asymmetric stretching vibratio”

  Akman 等 - 2020 - Synthesis and characterization of starch sulfates DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2012.07.075
• 1030 cm⁻¹ confidence 1.0

  “The LOD and aliphatic lactam 1767cm-1, 1030cm-1 υ and (O=S=O) band at and the LOQ values were determined from the linear calibration 1124cm-1.”

  Ali 等 - 2017 - Solid-State FTIR Spectroscopic Study of Two Binary DOI: 10.1155/2017/5673214