Trace Element Analysis of Rough Diamond by LA-ICP-MS: A Case of Source Discrimination?

• NCJ Number: 232878
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 55 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2010 Pages: 1443-1456
• Author(s): Claude Dalpe, Ph.D.; Pierre Hudon, Ph.D.; David J. Ballantyne; Darrell Williams, Ph.D.; Denis Marcotte, Ph.D.
• Date Published: November 2010
• Length: 14 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented in part at the 2008 Winter Conference on Plasma Spectro-chemistry, January 6-12, 2008, in Temecula, CA.

Annotation

This study presents a LA-ICP-MS methodology that the authors developed for analyzing ultra-trace element impurities in rough diamond for origin determination ("profiling").

Abstract

Current profiling of rough diamond source is performed using different physical and/or morphological techniques that require strong knowledge and experience in the field. More recently, chemical impurities have been used to discriminate diamond source and with the advance of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) empirical profiling of rough diamonds is possible to some extent. Diamonds from two sources were analyzed by LA-ICP-MS and were statistically classified by accepted methods. For the two diamond populations analyzed in this study, binomial logistic regression produced a better overall correct classification than linear discriminant analysis. The results suggest that an anticipated matrix match reference material would improve the robustness of our methodology for forensic applications. (Published Abstract)