Application of Raman and LIBS Spectroscopy for Qualitative Analysis of Historical Ink

The article presents experimental results related to the use of Raman and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for chemical analysis, as well as to the study of the composition of historical inks Examples of qualitative spectral analysis of four types of model ink as well as the original ink of the manuscript “The Gospel According to Luke Explanatory” are presented. The given ink replicas created on the basis of an authentic recipe were applied to cotton pulp paper, which underwent artificial heat and moisture aging. The obtained spectra were recorded using a Raman Confocal microscope. The presented results of interpretation of the spectra show the possibility of qualitative analysis of model ink samples and original ink of the manuscript, their comparison and obtaining the expected similarity of compositions. The disadvantages of this method were identified as well, and it was proposed to compensate for them using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.