| ATR is increasingly the method of choice for sampling many materials using FT-IR spectroscopy. While ATR works extremely well with IR accessories, it is the choice of crystal material which can have a profound effect on the experiment. For instance, diamond is considered to be a "universal ATR material" because of its hardness, chemical inertness and spectral range. However, there are analysis cases where other crystal materials are better suited.
Many black rubber materials, such as in automobile tires, are used in heavy duty applications. These materials are difficult to analyze using IR because of blackening caused by the presence of carbon black, which absorbs and scatters IR radiation severely, making materials opaque to IR radiation, even in thin sections. The analysis of these materials is critical, however, especially in failure analysis. There is interest in additives in high carbon-black rubbers (20-30% or more), for which IR could be a useful probe. Also, wear patterns or sudden performance changes due to formation need to be analyzed without destruction of the part.
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