Sharma Vishal, Sengupta Arijit, Acharya Raghunath, Bagla Hemlata K
Department of Nuclear and Radiochemistry, Kishinchand Chellaram College Mumbai 400020 India.
Radiochemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Mumbai 400085 India
RSC Adv. 2023 Feb 9;13(8):5118-5133. doi: 10.1039/d3ra00069a. eCollection 2023 Feb 6.
Automobile (car) windshield glass fragments serve as important forensic evidentiary materials and their chemical characterization mainly at minor and trace concentration levels is a key step in forensic investigations. For such glass analysis as well as for forensics, direct solid sample analysis by suitable analytical technique(s) is very important. In view of this, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) using high flux neutrons from research reactor was utilized for chemical characterization of car windshield glass samples. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) and direct current arc carrier distillation atomic emission spectroscopy (DC Arc AES) methods were also utilized for the analysis of all glass samples for evaluating their analytical capabilities with respect to INAA. A comparative evaluation was carried out with respect to accuracy, precision, and detection limits under quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC). The methods were validated by analyzing certified reference materials (CRMs) G-2 and RGM-1 from USGS and NIST standard reference material (SRM) of sodalime glass (SRM 610). Concentrations of seventeen elements (Na, Ca, Sc, Cr, Fe, Co, Zn, Rb, Zr, Ba, La, Hf, Ce, Eu, Yb, Sm, and Th) were determined in all analyzed glass samples by INAA at major, minor, and trace concentration levels, indicating its capability for potential applications to forensic studies. Grouping study of these automobile glasses was carried out utilizing concentrations of transition elements and rare earth elements (REEs) in conjunction with statistical cluster analysis. In addition, it has been highlighted that some of the transition elements as well as REEs are important markers/discriminating elements for same brand automobile glasses obtained from two different sources/origins.
汽车挡风玻璃碎片是重要的法医鉴定证据材料，对其主要在微量和痕量浓度水平下进行化学表征是法医调查的关键步骤。对于此类玻璃分析以及法医鉴定而言，采用合适的分析技术对固体样品进行直接分析非常重要。鉴于此，利用研究堆产生的高通量中子进行仪器中子活化分析（INAA），对汽车挡风玻璃样品进行化学表征。还利用能量色散X射线荧光光谱法（ED-XRF）和直流电弧载体蒸馏原子发射光谱法（DC Arc AES）对所有玻璃样品进行分析，以评估它们相对于INAA的分析能力。在质量保证/质量控制（QA/QC）条件下，对准确度、精密度和检测限进行了比较评估。通过分析美国地质调查局的认证参考物质（CRM）G-2和RGM-1以及钠钙玻璃的美国国家标准技术研究所标准参考物质（SRM）（SRM 610）对这些方法进行了验证。采用INAA在主要、次要和痕量浓度水平下测定了所有分析玻璃样品中17种元素（Na、Ca、Sc、Cr、Fe、Co、Zn、Rb、Zr、Ba、La、Hf、Ce、Eu、Yb、Sm和Th）的浓度，表明其在法医研究中的潜在应用能力。利用过渡元素和稀土元素（REEs）的浓度结合统计聚类分析对这些汽车玻璃进行了分组研究。此外，还强调了一些过渡元素以及稀土元素是来自两个不同来源/产地的同一品牌汽车玻璃的重要标记/鉴别元素。
