An elemental analysis of Indian automotive paint using SEM-EDS

Scientific analysis of automotive paint is intended to provide details of the evidence and to establish the connection between culprit and victim through scene of crime. Paint examiners compares the physical features, chemical to match with the control sample of known source. In this study, examination has been done on the layers of automotive paint chips collected from Maruti Suzuki from Kottayam region of Kerala. The study also focusses on elemental identification and comparison with different samples of same brand using Scanning electron Microscope coupled to Energy Dispersive X Ray Spectroscopy. The result shows the presence of Thulium in white and grey paint samples and Aluminium in the red paint samples of automobile paint. Thus, profiling chemicals and elements in the sample may leads to individualization of the automobiles and can be include in the paint database.