Application of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma multicollector mass spectometry in determination of lead isotope ratios in common glass for forensic purposes

• Lead isotope ratios prove suitable to discriminate glass for forensic purposes.
• 96% of glass samples from different sources were separated by lead isotopic ratios.
• Laser ablation allows fragments of glass with extension of 0.5 mm to be analyzed.
• Isotopic ratios of lead are well suited for statistical analysis of evidence.

Samples of glass used as trace evidence in criminal cases are commonly small, with particle sizes below a millimeter. To perform chemical analysis suitable for forensic purposes, methods capable of analyzing such small samples are required.In this paper, analyses of lead isotope ratios by means of laser ablation inductively coupled multicollector mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) are presented. Sampling by use of laser ablation allows fragments down to 0.1 mg to be analyzed with sufficient precision to discriminate between glasses of different origin. In fact, the use of lead isotopes determined by LA-MC-ICP-MS approaches the discrimination attainable by multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) analysis of dissolved samples of 5 mg or more.Further, we have obtained a probability distribution by two dimensional kernel density estimates for the collected data set as an alternative presentation method to the well-established bivariate plot. The underlying information available from kernel density estimates is of importance for forensic scientists involved in probabilistic interpretation of physical evidence.