Analyzing Automotive Paints With Extended-Range ATR
Infrared spectroscopy is one of the few analytical techniques considered by the forensic science community to have the highest discriminating power required to provide confirmatory evidence about the chemical composition of a material.
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is used extensively to characterize the chemical composition of trace evidence such as paints, fibers and adhesives as well as seized drugs and related chemicals. We have recently introduced the Thermo Scientific™ iS™50 ATR module, a novel, extended-range attenuated total reflectance (ATR) module that is integrated into the Nicolet™ iS50 FT-IR spectrometer. This ensures that the ATR module is always available for rapid analysis of unknown materials even with another accessory mounted in the sample compartment. The built-in ATR combines an optimized optical design with a diamond ATR crystal and a broad-range DTGS detector to provide high-sensitivity infrared spectroscopy from 4000 cm-1 to 100 cm-1. The enhanced stability, resulting from mounting the ATR within the sealed section of the spectrometer, makes it possible to acquire spectra down to 200 cm-1, even with a desiccated system.