D. Crowther et al., ANALYSIS OF NANOGRAM SPOTS OF INK BY FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED MICROSCOPY AND SPECTRAL STRIPPING, Analytical communications, 33(2), 1996, pp. 71-73
Dot matrix printing inks for industrial printers consist of solvent, b
inder, dye and various minor additives, We have used FTIR microspectro
scopy to examine the composition of these inks from the analysis of si
ngle dots of less than 1 mm diameter. Good spectra were obtained by re
flection-absorption on metal surfaces and by ATR on plastic surfaces,
Paper substrates have proved more troublesome, Analysis of the printed
inks was performed by an iterative process of component identificatio
n through library searching and spectral subtraction, Some bandshifts
mere observed which complicated this process, but two or three success
ive identification-subtraction cycles could often be made. A compariso
n of real sample spectra with synthetic spectra produced by addition o
f pure component spectra was also useful in highlighting spectral diff
erences, indicating component interactions in the formulated inks.