Forensic differentiation of paper by X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2009.12.056 Byline: Valerio Causin (a), Carla Marega (a), Antonio Marigo (a), Rosario Casamassima (b), Giuseppe Peluso (b), Luigi Ripani (b) Keywords: Forensic science; Questioned documents; Paper; Cellulose; Polymers; IR spectroscopy; X-ray diffraction Abstract: The possibility to discriminate between sheets of paper can be of considerable importance in questioned document examinations. 19 similar types of office paper were characterized by infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to individuate the most discriminating features that could be measured by these techniques. The discriminating value associated to them was also assessed. By using a sequence of these two techniques, all the samples could be differentiated. Author Affiliation: (a) Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche dell'Universita, via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy (b) Sezione di Chimica, Esplosivi ed Infiammabili, Reparto Carabinieri Investigazioni Scientifiche, Viale Tor di Quinto 151, 00191 Roma, Italy Article History: Received 10 July 2009; Revised 16 December 2009; Accepted 17 December 2009