FAR INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY IN THE FIELD OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

In the field of FTIR spectroscopy of heritage materials, theFar Infrared (FIR) region has been less investigated thanthe Mid Infrared (MIR) although it has some advantages,particularly in characterisation of inorganic compoundssuch as painting materials and corrosion products, whichare not active in the MIR. Furthermore, FIR spectroscopy isa complementary technique to Raman spectroscopy in particularin the presence of fluorescence. In this study wehave investigated the FIR region (600-90 cm-1) of eight inorganicstandard pigments employed in art. The eight standardcompounds are the preliminary results collected inorder to build a larger FIR-database librar y. One case studyis also presented.