Raman-Spectrometer; B&W Tek portable i-Raman Plus Spectrometer
The i-Raman Plus spectrometer is a portable Raman which can be used to identify pigments and inks during field trips. When packed, it fits in a large suitcase accompanied by a sport bag, and can be set up in about one hour (20-30 min for building and 30 min warm up and calibration). Our version of the spectrometer is equipped with optic fibre probes connected to the near-infrared (785 nm) laser and to the CCD detector and is typically used with a video microscope (x50 objective).
- General description: analysis of the structure and chemistry of inorganic and organic crystalline and amorphous solids.
- Application aim: Determination of the vibrational modes of crystalline or amorphous phases, the resulting spectrum is a structural fingerprint by which molecules can be identified. This spectrometer is used mostly to identify pigments and inks.
- Mobility: mobile; ca. 40 kg in total, can be packed in a large suitcase + sport bag for tripod
- Equipment specifics:
- charge-coupled array detector (CCD array, 2048 elements):
- spectral range: 175 – 3200 cm-1
- spectral resolution: < 4.5 cm-1
- instrumental peak position accuracy: 1 cm-1
- 785 nm diode laser (420 mW max) for laser excitation
- fibre optic Raman probe
- measuring head with Olympus x50 objective
- XYZ stage
- Application requirements: vibration-free environment, controlled temperature, safety regulations (laser class 3B)
- Sample required: no, surface to analyse needs to be flat, no preparation of the sample required, non-destructive, analysis of small details possible (thanks to the microscope objective)
- Contact required: no
- Interaction spot dimensions: ~85 μm
- Limitations: competition with fluorescence on some samples
- Set up time: ca. 30 min for warming up the laser and calibration against a silicon standard wafer (peak at 520 cm-1) or paracetamol
- Average time for measuring: from a few seconds up to 5 minutes per spot
- Average time for processing: from a couple of min/spectrum for quick identification to 15-30 min (depending on the complexity of operations required like baseline subtraction and peak fitting)
- Software package: BWSpek
- Operating system: Windows XP
- Operating conditions: 18-25 oC and relative humidity ≤ 80%
- Output: .txt (~100KB) or .spc (~15KB)
- Evaluation program: OriginPro 2019b, OMNIC, OPUS
- Contact: Sebastian Bosch, sebastian.bosch"AT"uni-hamburg.de
- Location of the equipment: CSMC Lab (Warburgstr. 28, Hamburg)