Identification of Organic Colorants in Fibers, Paints, and Glazes by Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Organic dyes extracted from plants, insects, and shellfish have been used for millennia in dyeing textiles and manufacturing colorants for painting. The economic push for dyes with high tinting strength, directly related to high extinction coefficients in the visible range, historically led to the selection of substances that could be used at low concentrations. But a desirable property for the colorist is a major problem for the analytical chemist; the identification of dyes in cultural heritage objects is extremely difficult. Techniques routinely used in the identification of inorganic pigments are generally not applicable to dyes: X-ray fluorescence because of the lack of an elemental signature, Raman spectroscopy because of the generally intense luminescence of dyes, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy because of the interference of binders and extenders. Traditionally, the identification of dyes has required relatively large samples (0.5-5 mm in diameter) for analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography. In this Account, we describe our efforts to develop practical approaches in identifying dyes in works of art from samples as small as 25 microm in diameter with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In SERS, the Raman scattering signal is greatly enhanced when organic molecules with large delocalized electron systems are adsorbed on atomically rough metallic substrates; fluorescence is concomitantly quenched. Recent nanotechnological advances in preparing and manipulating metallic particles have afforded staggering enhancement factors of up to 10(14). SERS is thus an ideal technique for the analysis of dyes. Indeed, rhodamine 6G and crystal violet, two organic compounds used to demonstrate the sensitivity of SERS at the single-molecule level, were first synthesized as textile dyes in the second half of the 19th century. In this Account, we examine the practical application of SERS to cultural heritage studies, including the selection of appropriate substrates, the development of analytical protocols, and the building of SERS spectral databases. We also consider theoretical studies on dyes of artistic interest. Using SERS, we have successfully documented the earliest use of a madder lake pigment and the earliest occurrence of lac dye in European art. We have also found several examples of kermes and cochineal glazes, as well as madder, cochineal, methyl violet, and eosin lakes, from eras ranging from ancient Egypt to the 19th century. The ability to rapidly analyze very small samples with SERS makes it a particularly valuable tool in a museum context.