Application Examples of Rubber and Elastomer Materials by FT-IR and Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

Infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy are important tools for material analysis to obtain information of molecular chemical structures. Both spectrometers are easy to operate and provide results quickly. In addition, simultaneous measurement that combines different methods can be obtained multifaceted information. In this article, three examples are introduced, and they could be applied to analysis for other kind of rubbers and elastomers. First example is infrared spectroscopy with Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) to identify rubber components. Second one is Raman spectroscopy to examine degradation of elastomers by focusing on peaks derived from the molecular skeletal structure. Last one is simultaneous measurement of rheology and Raman spectroscopy to evaluate the quality of polymers.