In the course of the 20th century synthetic organic pigments increasingly began to play an important role in artists’ colours which led to an ever increasing replacement of historical colorants. Their secure identification required completely new analytical approaches, due to the fact that usually only the smallest sample amounts are available. Earlier attempts at the Doerner Institut to identify synthetic organic pigments with thin-layer chromatography (TC) quickly revealed the limits of this technique, however it did indicate what was possible with improved analytics. Within a three-year research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) the Doerner Institut is currently studying this question intensively. The applied analytical methods are a combination of micro-chemical and solubility tests, Thin-layer Chromatography and High Performance Liquid Chromatography, as well as Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry and Raman microscopy.
