PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the asphalt binder properties using FTIR analysis. METHODS : To investigate the chemical properties of asphalt binders, FTIR tests were performed. Recently, FTIR was used for quantification under various aging conditions. Three scans were averaged for each sample within the wavenumber range of 4000 to 400 cm-1, at a resolution of 4 cm-1 (default Simatech software settings). To determine the oxidation of the extracted asphalt binder and the remaining TCE solution in the extracted asphalt binder, the penetration test was adopted and compared. To track the changes in the chemical composition of the aged bitumens, the ATR spectrum of each sample was analyzed, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The qualitative analysis involved identifying characteristic absorption peaks for the functional group of interest, such as polymer components, carbon and sulfur oxidation products, and polar aromatics. RESULTS : The asphalt binder is easily oxidized in air during FTIR testing. To reduce the oxidization of the asphalt binder, the asphalt binder must avoid air contact to measure constant results. Sometimes, the extracted asphalt binder has a residual solvent (TCE), which affects the evaluation of the extracted asphalt binder rheology, such as absolute viscosity and penetration testing. To solve this problem, the research team adopted the FTIR test method. First, the TCE was scanned with FTIR to obtain the chemical characteristics of TCE. After that, the extracted asphalt binder was scanned and the FTIR spectra were compared with those of TCE. If there is a TCE in the extracted asphalt binder, a typical peak was found in the spectrum. Thus, it is possible to estimate the content of the TCE remaining in the extracted asphalt binder via the FTIR test method. CONCLUSIONS : It is possible to evaluate the aging of asphalt binder through FTIR analysis used for the analysis of the chemical structure of asphalt. In addition, during FTIR analysis, the sample is required to avoid air contact to obtain accurate results. FTIR analysis was conducted to confirm whether the solvent (TCE) remained in the extracted asphalt binder and it was confirmed that the penetration increased by a factor of two when the solvent remained. This suggests that it is difficult to control the quality of the asphalt mixture by controlling the amount of recycled additive, as well as the aging of the extracted asphalt binder.

Little attention has been paid to the functional aspect of the flower petal of Paeonia lactiflora, compared to that of its root. To determine the components of flower petal of Paeonia lactiflora, we conducted the Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) MASS spectrophotometric analysis. We detected the 24 different types of ingredients from the 70% ethanol extracts of flower petal of peonia lactiflora cv. ‘Red Charm’. The main compounds were quercetin glucopyranosides, methyl gallate, paonioflolol and kaemperol glucopyranosides. We further tested its functional activity. The 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity of the extracts was 87.9-90.4% at 0.1mg/ml. This result showed that these flower extracts have approximately 5-fold stronger antioxidant potential than a previous report with root extracts (Bang et al. 1999). The result of tyrosinase inhibition assay of Paeonia lactflora extract was almost similar to that of arbutin except significantly higher effect in the coral sunset extract at 0.1% concentration. Hyaluronidase inhibition assay showed 76.5% inhibition at 5% concentration of this flower extract, indicating that Peaonia lactiflora flower extracts have the major anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and brightening effects. Taken together, these results suggest these three Paeonia lactiflora species extracts might provide the basis to develop a new natural brightening agent.