The Second International Conference on Forensic Activation Analysis Glasgow—September 1972

✍ Scribed by Hamilton Smith

• Book ID: 104119019
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 1973
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 317 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0015-7368
• DOI: 10.1016/s0015-7368(73)70780-5

✦ Synopsis

Definition

Forensic activation analysis is the application of the technique activation analysis to problems of forensic science. Activation analysis is a method of analysis for the chemical elements based on induced radioactivity. This radioactivity is induced by subjecting the object under investigation to irradiation with sub-atomic particles or photons. By far the most popular method is exposure to low energy (thermal) neutrons by placing the objects and standards in a nuclear reactor. The method gives very high sensitivity (better than 10-12g for a number of elements) and can often be carried out without destruction of the original material.

There are two areas of application in forensic science. The first is its straightforward use as a method of element concentration determination, for example in toxicology to find mercury or arsenic in tissue. The second is multi-element assay for the purpose of identifying a sample with its source by comparison of trace element concentration distributions.