title: 13C Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and µ-Raman Spectroscopic Characterization of Sicilian Amber.
abstract: (13)C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and µ-Raman spectroscopy were applied to characterize Sicilian amber samples. The main goal of this work was to supply a complete study of simetite, highlighting discriminating criteria useful to distinguish Sicilian amber from fossil resins from other regions and laying the foundations for building a spectroscopic database of Sicilian amber. With this aim, a private collection of unrefined simetite samples and fossil resins from the Baltic region and Dominican Republic was analyzed. Overall, the obtained spectra permitted simetite to be distinguished from the other resins. In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the spectroscopic data, allowing the clustering of simetite samples with respect to the Baltic and Dominican samples and to group the simetite samples in two sets, depending on their maturity. Finally, the analysis of loadings allowed for a better understanding of the spectral features that mainly influenced the discriminating characteristics of the investigated ambers.
authors.affiliation: University of Catania, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Germana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barone
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Risonanza Magnetica "Annalaura Segre", Istituto di Metodologie Chimiche, Monterotondo (Roma), Italy.
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Capitani
authors.affiliation: University of Catania, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mazzoleni
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Risonanza Magnetica "Annalaura Segre", Istituto di Metodologie Chimiche, Monterotondo (Roma), Italy noemi.proietti@cnr.it.
authors.forename: Noemi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Proietti
authors.affiliation: University of Catania, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Raneri
authors.affiliation: Gemologist, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Ugo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Longobardo
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Risonanza Magnetica "Annalaura Segre", Istituto di Metodologie Chimiche, Monterotondo (Roma), Italy.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Di Tullio
keywords: 13C solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR); Amber; fossil resins; principal component analysis (PCA); simetite; µ-Raman spectroscopy