Figure 1 (A) FIR spectra of polyethylene (PE) coated with a thin film of water (W) recorded in the FIR region of 650-50 cm—". PE has one broad band at 540 cm~" and one relatively sharp band at 73 cm~". All other bands can be attributed to water. (B) Cross-sectior of a PE pellet containing 0.6 mg of the pigment terra di Sienna (burnt). The cross-section shows homogeneous distribution of the pigment in the polyethylene. No air bubbles are visible and the PE pellet has a homogeneous thickness of approximately 1.0 mm (Optical Microscopy, original magnification 50x). The FIR spectra of PE coated with a thin film of water is shown in Fig. 1(A). PE has one noticeable band at approximately 73 cm~! and another weak and broad one at 540 cm~!, which is usually covered by other bands coming from the pigment samples. Another band, whose origin is unknown (coming from the instrument, water or air), is at around 50 cm~!, however, this band is not always present in the FIR spectra. The remaining bands seen in Fig. 1(A) can be attributed to water, which is present on this PE pellet as a thin film. Both water and PE bands have an intensity of less than 20% transmission and are therefore usually covered by actual pigment bands when PE pellets are mixed with a pigment. Figure 1(B) shows the cross-section of a PE pellet containing 0.6 mg of the standard Kremer pigment terra di Sienna (burnt). The PE pellet has a diameter of 13 mm and a homogeneous thickness over the entire cross- section of approximately 1.05-1.08 mm. The cross-section shows a homogeneous distribution of the pigment in the PE. No air bubbles, which could disturb the recording of the FIR spectra and create artificial noise bands in the spectra, are visible in the PE pellet. The scratches on the surface are due to the cutting method (razor blade) of the PE pellet. The melting of PE to produce PE pellets involves exposing the sample to elevated temperatures for a brief period and this could possibly cause thermal degradation of the sample. Just how much or how little of the sample