TY - JOUR
T1 - The Use of UV-Visible Diffuse Reflectance Spectrophotometry for a Fast, Preliminary Authentication of Gemstones
AU - Aceto, Maurizio
AU - Calà, Elisa
AU - Gulino, Federica
AU - Gullo, Francesca
AU - Labate, Maria
AU - Agostino, Angelo
AU - Picollo, Marcello
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - The identification of gemstones is an important topic in the field of cultural heritage, given their enormous value. Particularly, the most important precious stones, namely diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire, are frequently subjected to counterfeit by substitution with objects of lesser value with similar appearance, colour or shape. While a gemmologist is able to recognise a counterfeit in most instances, more generally, it is not easy to do this without resorting to instrumental methods. In this work, the use of UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optic fibres (FORS) is proposed as a fast and easy method for the preliminary identification of gemstones, alternative to the classical methods used by gemmologists or to Raman spectroscopy, which is by far the instrumental method with the best diagnostic potential, but it cannot be used in situations of problematic geometric hindrance. The possibilities and the limitations given by the FORS technique are critically discussed together with the spectral features of the most important gemstones. Finally, the application of chemometric pattern recognition methods is described for the treatment of large sets of spectral data deriving from gemstones identification.
AB - The identification of gemstones is an important topic in the field of cultural heritage, given their enormous value. Particularly, the most important precious stones, namely diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire, are frequently subjected to counterfeit by substitution with objects of lesser value with similar appearance, colour or shape. While a gemmologist is able to recognise a counterfeit in most instances, more generally, it is not easy to do this without resorting to instrumental methods. In this work, the use of UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optic fibres (FORS) is proposed as a fast and easy method for the preliminary identification of gemstones, alternative to the classical methods used by gemmologists or to Raman spectroscopy, which is by far the instrumental method with the best diagnostic potential, but it cannot be used in situations of problematic geometric hindrance. The possibilities and the limitations given by the FORS technique are critically discussed together with the spectral features of the most important gemstones. Finally, the application of chemometric pattern recognition methods is described for the treatment of large sets of spectral data deriving from gemstones identification.
KW - FORS
KW - colour
KW - gemstones
KW - non-invasive
KW - reflectance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135375633&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/molecules27154716
DO - 10.3390/molecules27154716
M3 - Article
SN - 1420-3049
VL - 27
JO - Molecules
JF - Molecules
IS - 15
M1 - 4716
ER -