Using Portable Handheld Raman Device for Determining Polymer Content in Security Documents

Batya Fuchs, Questioned Documents lab, DIFS, Israel Police, Jerusalem, israel (bat.fuchs@gmail.com)
Uriel Bretler, National Drug Lab, Difs, Israel Police, Jerusalem, Israel
Sarena Wiesner, Questioned Documents Lab, Difs, Israel Police, Jerusalem, Israel

Polycarbonate, PVC and other types of plastic are commonly used for security documents such as identity cards, driver’s licenses, or passport data pages. In this research we suggest a quick and non-destructive method for identifying the polymer content in plastic security documents in order to differentiate between them. We applied a portable handheld Raman device on various plastic cards. The Raman instrument was originally developed for in-field analysis of drugs or mineral sampling. The findings showed that the results of the portable handheld Raman device correctly identified the polymer content in the plastic cards. The results were easy and quick to obtain, as well as, repeatable and reproducible. We suggest this method can be readily applied as a quick first line screening in border security checkpoints.