Micro spectroscopy FTIR reflectance examination of paint binders on ground chalk

Abstract

A restorer's questions on chemical analysis of paint binders to support his complicated work has always had an exceptional appeal for chemists. Non-destructive surface analysis of rather complex materials such as paint binders is possible. The advantages of vibrational spectroscopy related to the details about chemical structure of organic compounds have been combined with sophisticated methods of multivariate data analysis. Reflectance spectra of several paint binders on ground chalk were measured using a fast, sensitive FTIR spectrometer equipped with an infrared microscope. The initial reflectance spectra include sufficient structural information to allow successful classification by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Similarities between the several binders are plotted as dendrograms which are well structured. Their explanation will be discussed in detail. Finally the postulated feature sets will be checked up by principal component analysis (PCA) as to their relevance and information content.