3D Fluorescence Characterization of Synthetic Organic Dyes

Abstract

The identification of dyes is important in research on museum artefacts as well as in forensic applications. UV-visible absorption spectroscopy cannot unambiguously distinguish dyes with similar hues, while mass spectrometry may fail to distinguish isobaric dyes. The detailed patterns produced by 3D fluorescence spectroscopy appear to be virtually unique, even among dyes that are closely related positional isomers. We report these patterns for 65 dyes from the Schweppe Library of Synthetic Organic Dyes as well as measurements suggesting both the capabilities and limitations of this method.