Scholars' Mine Masters Theses Student Theses and Dissertations Fall 2007 Physical analysis of human hair Lea Marie Dankers Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/masters_theses Part of the Chemistry Commons Department: Recommended Citation Dankers, Lea Marie, "Physical analysis of human hair" (2007). Masters Theses. 6772. https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/masters_theses/6772 This thesis is brought to you by Scholars' Mine, a service of the Missouri S&T Library and Learning Resources. This work is protected by U. S. Copyright Law. Unauthorized use including reproduction for redistribution requires the permission of the copyright holder. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. PHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF HUMAN HAIR by LEA MARIE DANKERS A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ROLLA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CHEMISTRY 2007 Approved by _______________________________ _______________________________ Frank D. Blum, Advisor Nuran Ercal _______________________________ F. Scott Miller iii ABSTRACT Physical analysis of human hair has been performed to determine the effects of chemical treatments on hair samples. Five samples including an untreated sample were analyzed using various methods. The methods included differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and carbon-13 cross polarization/magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (13C CP/MAS NMR). DSC was only used to analyze untreated hair and endothermic peaks characteristic of hair were easily observed. TGA analysis showed that the treated samples lost mass more gradually with temperature than untreated hair in the range of 500 – 600 ºC, suggesting the treatments affected the hair structure.