Recent rise of social attention towards ethical jewelry has led scientists to a challenge of how to construct analytical systems that can deliver in line with social and supply chain expectations. Of the various kinds of methods, “Proton/Particle-Induced X-ray Emission” (PIXE) seems to be robust and promising in characterizing gemstones because of its capability of trace element analysis without destruction. The authors established a non-standard method to analyze cultured pearls and applied it to test specimens from different places. The results showed that PIXE could detect important elements for pearl study with good accuracy and sensitivity and that pearl chemistry can be useful to differentiate freshwater and marine pearl products.
LAMINARY STRUCTURE OF CULTURED PEARLS OBSERVED WITH ELECTRON MICROSCOPE-II