Abstract
Elephants are endangered due to the value of their ivory tusks. Therefore, a reliable method for age determination of ivory is of interest for the law enforcement against elephant poachers. The ratio of the specific activities Th-228/Th-232 can be used for the age assessment of ivory. In this report, the combination of two complementary detection techniques, namely inductively coupled plasma-mass ...
Abstract
Elephants are endangered due to the value of their ivory tusks. Therefore, a reliable method for age determination of ivory is of interest for the law enforcement against elephant poachers. The ratio of the specific activities Th-228/Th-232 can be used for the age assessment of ivory. In this report, the combination of two complementary detection techniques, namely inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and -spectrometry, for the determination of Th-228 and Th-232 in ivory is presented. Using ICP-MS in addition to -spectrometry, the uncertainty of the Th-232 determination could be reduced significantly which enabled a more accurate and effective ivory dating.
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