FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (FT-IR) AND X-RAY DIFFRACTOMETRY (XRD) AS METHODS FOR DISCRIMINATING AMBER AND AMBER-LIKE MATERIALS FROM THE ROMANIAN MARKET

Amber and amber-like material are often found our days in the Romanian gemstone exhibitions. Fake amber is more and more difficult to detect, because modern manufactured products made of natural resins and/or polymers are so perfect, that they can produce same esthetic effects of the transparent and colored–like amber pieces. Macroscopically, they can not be separated from amber without a good personal experience or only applying gemological classic tests. So, modern physico-chemical methods, as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) are applied, for discriminating amber and forgeries.