Raman Spectroscopy Helps Ivory Ban

Posted By : Joy

Sep 01, 2021

Category: Raman Blog

Comments: 0

Ivory and ivory products are expensive. Whether it is the cultural heritage of ancient ivory products or the craftsmanship of modern ivory, they are very popular. But behind the popularity of ivory products is the massacre of elephants.So banning ivory is particularly important.

Why would an elephant die without ivory? This is because ivory is evolved from special incisors, and its roots go deep into the cranial cavity of the upper jaw. In order to maximize the benefits, poachers often pull out the ivory by the roots, which directly causes the elephant's death.

What is ivory?Ivory is the fangs of male Asian elephants, African elephants, and mammoths. Its essence is a kind of tooth, but this kind of tooth is not used for chewing, but used as a weapon or tool.Where is the value of ivory? Ivory is a tooth. There is no difference between it and the teeth used for chewing. It is just that the color difference is slightly different in minerals and other trace elements. The high value of ivory is also because of its rarity, whiteness and flawlessness. It is also related to the excellent material for carving.

It can be used to make dental sculptures, dentures, dice or piano keys, mahjong, etc. Many luxury goods like to use ivory to match. The ivory-carved artwork, with its solid, dense, soft and smooth texture, has always been sought after by connoisseurs because it is unique among artworks.

Raman spectroscopy helps the ivory ban. To give an example: at the end of April 2020, when the Jinan Post Office under Jinan Customs inspected inbound mail, it was found that a certain postal parcel sent from the Netherlands was suspected of being trapped. On-site customs officers used a handheld Raman spectrometer to conduct preliminary identification of the trapped items. The results showed that the related products were all ivory.