title: Energy dispersive X-ray diffraction as a means to identify illicit materials: a preliminary optimisation study.
abstract: Energy dispersive X-ray diffraction is proposed as a suitable non-destructive method to rapidly identify illicit drugs in parcels. A preliminary data set of 7 illicit drug samples and a possible cutting agent has been collected with a range of count times using a tungsten target X-ray source, a high resolution HpGe detector and a variable geometry diffraction cell. These results have been used to calibrate and train multivariate analysis software to predict the drug content in previously unseen spectra.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, UCL, London WC1E 6BT, UK. ecook@medphys.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Ruby
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Horrocks
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Speller
mesh_terms: D005240:Feasibility Studies; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000032:analysis*; D011177:Postal Service; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012637:Security Measures; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs