The identification of colorants in historic plastics is a methodological and analytical challenge. Although deformulation is performed by the plastics industry, in the case of historical objects, sampling is often impossible, and in situ protocols are needed. The accurate identification of colorants provides insights into historical plastic formulations, supports planning of conservation studies, and critical data for objects that already exhibit color change (e.g. fading). Indeed, colorants may degrade following exposure to light, and color changes have been reported for plastic objects. The analysis of colorants remains a challenge, and microsampling is usually required. Successful identification of red pigments from thirty historical plastics is reported following a new in situ analytical protocol based on Raman microscopy. Information about other pigments, fillers and plastic polymers are reported. Fading has been observed in the historical plastic objects containing Pigment Red 53.

Plastics have been increasingly used to create modern and contemporary art and design, and nowadays, museum collections hold numerous objects completely or partially made of plastics. However, the preservation of these materials is still a challenging task in heritage conservation, especially because some plastics show signs of degradation shortly after their production. In addition, different degradation mechanisms can often take place depending on the plastic composition and appropriate environmental and packaging conditions should be adopted. Therefore, methods for in situ and rapid characterization of plastic artifacts’ composition are greatly needed to outline proper conservation strategies. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, such as attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR–FTIR), is a well-established method for polymeric material analysis. However, ATR-FTIR requires an intimate contact with the object, which makes its application less appropriate for the in situ investigation of fragile or brittle degraded plastic objects. Mid-FTIR reflectance spectroscopy may represent a valid alternative as it allows in situ measurements with minimum or even no contact, and IR data can be acquired rapidly. On the other hand, spectral interpretation of reflectance spectra is usually difficult as IR bands may appear distorted with significant changes in band maximum, shape and relative intensity, depending on the optical properties and surface texture of the material analyzed. Presently, mid-FTIR reflection devices working in external reflection (ER-FTIR) and diffuse reflection (DRIFT) modes have been used in cultural heritage research studies. As the collected vibrational information depends on the optical layout of the measuring system, differences between ER-FTIR and DRIFT spectra are thus expected when the same polymer is analyzed. So far, ER-FTIR and DRIFT spectroscopy have been individually explored for the identification of plastic objects, but comparative studies between the application of two reflectance FTIR modes have not been presented yet. In this work, the use of two portable FTIR spectrometers equipped with ER-FTIR and DRIFT modes were compared for plastics identification purposes for the first time. Both references of polymeric materials and historical plastic objects (from a Portuguese private collection) were studied and the differences between ER-FTIR and DRIFT spectra were discussed. The spectra features were examined considering the two different optical geometries and analytes’ properties. This new insight can support a better understanding of both vibrational information acquired and practical aspects in the application of the ER-FTIR and DRIFT in plastic analysis.

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