Analysis of Blue Fountain Pen Ink by UV-Vis Spectroscopy, ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy, and Thin Layer Chromatography Enhanced with RGB Spot Evaluation to Construct a Database for Comparison and Identification.

Pen ink can be a crucial piece of physical evidence in the area of Forensic Science. For example, evidence such as notes, letters, printed documents, checks, currency, ransom notes, and books may contain ink. Analysis of ink is typically done for identification or differentiation purposes. To improve existing methods, it was proposed to create a database with many samples and experimental information. The methods used and evaluated were thin-layer chromatography (TLC) enhanced with RGB spot evaluation, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. All three methods were used to analyze 89 fountain pen ink samples. All three methods were able to discriminate between the majority of the ink samples. However, some samples were still similar and difficult to differentiate with a single method. Using more than one method proved advantageous in discriminating more samples