A Systematic Approach to Egyptian Ballpoint Ink Analysis for Forensic Science Application

Abstract

The aim of this study was to establish the Egyptian standard ink library with its discrimination methods for differentiation among the locally produced ballpoint inks. Two groups of ballpoint inks were collected from various Egyptian sources, one of them contained four blue inks (inks 1-4) and the other contained four black inks(inks 5-8). The results of ink identification obtained from non-destructive methods, such as filtered light examination (FLE) and microspectrophotometry (MSP) were compared with that obtained from Raman spectroscopy and Surface Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering (SERRS). The results show that only blue ink 1 was distinguished from the other blue inks 2, 3, and 4 by all physical tests, while the latter three inks could not be distinguished from each other by any one of the selected physical methods. Black inks 6 and 7 were distinguished from black inks 5 and 8 by all methods except infrared luminescence (IRL). Inks 5 and 8 were differentiated by SERRS. Similar inks which could not be differentiated by the previous methods have been distinguished using thin layer chromatography (TLC). The results indicated that blue inks 2 and 3 are nearly the same inks .Blue inks 1 and 4 could be differentiated from each other and from blue inks 2 and 3. TLC could not distinguish black inks 6 and 7 and the results of energy dispersive X-ray analysis showed that they contained the same inorganic elements. They could be distinguished from inks 5 and 8. The later could be differentiated from each other by TLC and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. It was concluded that SERRS is a complementary and very useful non-destructive technique to the common nondestructive techinque. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis was found to be a rapid and sensitive technique that successfully differentiated the selected inks. Although TLC is a well established technique for the comparison of inks, it can be successfully replaced by the X-ray analysis.

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