How Pure is Your Gold ?
Adulteration with Iridium, Ruthenium…………..???
Check & Show Karat by World’s #1 & Leading Brand
Quantum’s Karatmeter * - German Engineering.
More than 1200 Quantum’s XRFs in Jewellery Industry in India.
Tanishq, Malabar, Abharan, Kesar, Surya, C. Krishniah Chetty & Sons, Padmavati, Srinath Gold lab, Excell, Pawan, Akshaya, Ita lab…………………….
Technical Note for Private Circulation
QUANTUM’S KARATMETER XRF SPECTROMETER……CHECK IRIDIUM & RUTHENIUM IN GOLD ALLOYS
Adulteration of Gold with Iridium & Ruthenium, consequently its detection is a challenging task facing the Buyer, Seller & the Regulatory Agency.
By observing the Physical properties of Gold, Iridium, Silver & Ruthenium given in Table below one can understand why Iridium & Ruthenium escape the detection by the Fire Assay Technique used for the determination of Purity of Gold.
Element |
Atomic Number |
Melting Point |
Density |
Gold |
79 |
1063 |
19.37 |
Iridium |
77 |
2443 |
22,42 |
Silver |
47 |
961 |
10,5 |
Ruthenium |
44 |
2427 |
12,41 |
Due to their high melting points, the detection of Iridium & Ruthenium by Fire Assay Method is difficult as most of the Labs have furnace up to 1150 deg C coupled with the fact that when mixed with Gold, both Iridium & Ruthenium do not form an alloy but sit tight in the Yellow metal and are available in scattered form as fine particles. By visual inspection of the cornet after the fire assay process, the presence of Iridium & Ruthenium may be found as tiny black particles by skilled Lab Chemists.
Quantum’s Karatmeter * Mistral with high resolution Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) XRF Spectrometer can be used to check/detect the presence of Iridium and Ruthenium impurities in Gold Alloys. The Semi-conductor Detector (Mistral with SDD) has resolution apprx. four times that of the Gas-filled Proportional counter, and is thus able to resolve/separate the peaks of interest.
The Gold, Iridium, Silver & Ruthenium spectra using proportional counter detector and Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) are shown in the figures:-
Model : Karatmeter * Mistral SDD XRF Spectrometer is thus ideally suited for detection of Iridium & Ruthenium in Gold Alloys. For additional technical details/prices of Quantum’s Karatmeter *, please contact SAI Technologies.
* Registered Trade Mark of Quantum Equipment Co. Ltd., Mumbai.
