instrumental techniques applied to mineralogy and geochemistry

92 Clemente Recio
The source of the cellulose can be determined. Other fields of use include the
investigation of drug-related crime, where it can assist in distinguishing between
different countries of manufacture or different manufacturers of pharmaceutical drugs,
and can be employed to determine the procedence of drugs such as heroin: differences in
the growing regions of the drug plant will result in differences in the N, C and O isotopic
ratios.
Explosives and Fire
All commonly used explosives (gunpowder: a mixture of sulphur, charcoal, and
saltpeter -potassium nitrite, KNO 2 -; Trinitrotoluene (TNT): C 6 H 2 (NO 2 ) 3 CH 3 ;
Nitroglycerine: CH 2 (ONO 2 )-CH(ONO 2 )-CH 2 (ONO 2 ); RDX: (CH 2 -N-NO 2 ) 3 ; PETN:
C(CH 2 ONO 2 ) 4 , and the mixtures known as Plastic Explosives) have at least C and N into
their formulation, and some also H, O and S; all of which have stable isotopes, whose
isotopic ratios are amenable to determination by mass spectrometry..
TABLE 2.- Range of 15 N and 13 C observed for different explosives (Belanger, 2002).
No. of
Material 15 N 13 C
samples
Ammonium Range = 5.4
- 7
Nitrate ‰
Range = 30.4 Range = 2.5
Gunpowder
7
‰
‰
Range = 19.8 Range = 3.1
TNT
3
‰
‰
Range = 14.0 Range = 10.1
Plastic Explosive
4
‰
‰