Analytical Instrument and its Utilization in Soil Forensic: A Review

Abstract

In the present paper, we give an overview on the importance of the analytical instrument used in the field offorensic science for the elemental analysis of soil evidence collected from the scene of occurrence. The forensicscientist must rely upon the elemental composition of major and trace elements for the soil sample comparisonand discrimination. Variation in the composition of soil sample allows considerable discrimination through theinstrumental technique even there is a little amount of sample. Through this paper, reviews on the techniqueswhich are extensively used in forensic sciences have been reported. Report summaries based on soil analysisapplication and techniques employed for the elemental composition like X-ray fluorescence (XRF), SEM/EDX,inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry, and XRD. ATR-FTIR for mineral identification.