It seems that the closest we got to systematically testing different materials is the work of Potter 1923 (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspa.1923.0130) who tested brass, lead, steel, ammonium flouride, bismuth, paraffin wax, duralumin, and mahogany. He reports that Bessel 1827 tested iron, zinc, lead, silver, gold, Fe3O4, CaCO3, clay, quartz, and water.
Repeating Potter’s experiments with ~10^2 compounds (possibly containing tens of different elements) would be a pretty big step forward.
https://botland.store/motion-sensors/18691-ir-beam-interruption-sensor-led-5mm-0-100cm-5904422360603.html
It seems that the closest we got to systematically testing different materials is the work of Potter 1923 (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspa.1923.0130) who tested brass, lead, steel, ammonium flouride, bismuth, paraffin wax, duralumin, and mahogany. He reports that Bessel 1827 tested iron, zinc, lead, silver, gold, Fe3O4, CaCO3, clay, quartz, and water.
Repeating Potter’s experiments with ~10^2 compounds (possibly containing tens of different elements) would be a pretty big step forward.