A SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATION OF ORPIMENT (YELLOW ARSENIC) USED AS A DEPILATORY

Abstract

Orpiment in other name yellow arsenic, known as bath grass in public, is a sulfide mineral. Anciently, orpiment was evaluated as a pigment and dye in arts and industry for painting dolls and toys, and still is widely used as a depilatory. It is known that the bath grass (orpiment) used for depilatory, involve arsenic, may has toxic effect on human health. In this study, we aimed to analyze the sample obtained commercially in order to see whether there can be a toxicity effect or not. Several spectroscopic techniques (Electron paramagnetic resonance, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectrophotometer, Scanning electron microscopy-Energy dispersive spectroscopy) were applied to the sample and obtained results were evaluated in detail.

Keywords

• Orpiment
• arsenic
• spectroscopic techniques
• depilatory

References

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