Kassu, A., Walker, L., Sanders, R., Farley, C., Mills, J. and Sharma, A. (2017) Nondestructive Spectroscopic Characterization of Building Materials. SPIE Smart Structures and Materials and Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, Portland, Vol. 10169, 101692V-1.

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Analysis of Spectral Signatures of Silicone-Based Sealant Materials Used in Residential and Commercial Buildings

  AUTHORS: Aschalew Kassu, Carlton Farley III, Jonathan Mills, Anup Sharma

  KEYWORDS: Silicone Sealant, Characterization of Construction Materials, Raman Spectra of Building Sealants, Reflectance Spectra of Silicone Sealants

  JOURNAL NAME: Journal of Building Construction and Planning Research, Vol.6 No.3, July 25, 2018

  ABSTRACT: In the construction industry, silicone is primarily used as sealant material to fill gaps and cracks providing water and air-tightness to vertical construction projects reducing energy usage bills and enhancing the integrity of construction materials. This paper reports the results of spectral analysis of commonly used building sealant materials used in residential and commercial buildings. A dozen commercially available silicone-based sealant materials composed of different ingredients representing three manufacturer brands are characterized using Raman and UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopic techniques. The characteristic vibrational fingerprints of the selected sealant materials are summarized, and the Raman and reflectance spectra of the samples are also presented. It is observed that most of the samples appear to have similar vibrational band assignments and reflectance spectra. However, analysis of the Raman spectral positions and the reflectance spectra reveals that there are distinct differences among the sealant materials.