Mikroślad lakierowy - wczoraj i dziś

One of the problems of increasing signifi cance in criminal examinations is the identifi - cation of paint samples. Th ere are many microanalytical methods used in the analysis of small paint samples. Optical and spectrometric investigation, which provides information about the colour, surface texture, layer structure and chemical composition of the paint, enables us to determine the kind of paint and to discriminate between diff erent paint samples. Detailed identifi cation of the polymers that constitute the binder requires an application of the Py-GC/MS method, which analyses gaseous products of thermally decomposed small paint samples. As a result, chromatograms are obtained, which may help to distinguish polymers of the same chemical class. Recently Raman microspectrometry has been applied in the identifi cation of pigments and diff erentiation between paint samples of similar colour and hue. All these methods provide rich information about the composition of the paint sample and enable its group identifi cation. Th e aim of this article is to demonstrate the usefulness of these methods in the interpretation of the results for criminal investigation purposes.