Spectroscopic analysis of hair

Question 1

What is the use of IR and Raman of hair analysis?

Answer 1

These are used used to distinguish hair treatments and chemical damage along the length of a hair, allowing us to compare an unknown sample to a reference sample

Question 2

What is mass spectrometry and what it’s use in hair analysis?

Answer 2

Mass spec is a device for producing ions from a compound in order to obtain molecular weight and structural information

it can be used for the detection and analysis of minute amount of materials
it provides evidence in tracking the movement of people and/or chemicals

Question 3

What are the 4 main ionisation approaches?

Answer 3

electron - hard ionisation technique (destructive)
chemical - soft ionisation technique (non-destructive)
Electro spray (soft ionisation technique)
MALDI (soft ionisation technique)

Question 4

What is the difference between electron and chemical ionisation?

Answer 4

electron - hard ionisation technique (destructive) - use for structural information
chemical - soft ionisation technique (non-destructive) molecular ion

Question 5

What is the use of mass analysers?