Spectroscopic Methods in the Characterization of Minerals and Gems - Scope and Limitations of Science

Description

The identification of gemstones is an important ability for jewelers, gem dealers, investors, collectors and many more. This branch of science is called “gemology”, and from the point of a modern scientist it is quite old fashioned and based on a lot of experience. The instruments that a gemologist has usually at hand are a microscope, a refractometer, a polariscope, and a prism spectroscope. With this mostly portable equipment they are able to identify most gemstones and in some cases they are even able to assign a country of origin (or at least give an opinion on this topic). Nowadays, there are much more advanced techniques available for the Chemist and Physicist, admittedly rather expensive ones, which are already used by some of the main gem labs. We will try to show what Infrared and Raman spectrometry or laser ablation icp MS can do and have a look on some examples such as diamond, spinel and topaz – natural vs. synthetic, various treatments, and determination of origin based on scientific parameters.

Period	12 Nov 2015
Event title	unbekannt/unknown
Event type	Other
Location	GermanyShow on map