Energy dispersive X-ray diffraction as a means to identify illicit materials: a preliminary optimisation study.

Energy dispersive X-ray diffraction is proposed as a suitable non-destructive method to rapidly identify illicit drugs in parcels. A preliminary data set of 7 illicit drug samples and a possible cutting agent has been collected with a range of count times using a tungsten target X-ray source, a high resolution HpGe detector and a variable geometry diffraction cell. These results have been used to calibrate and train multivariate analysis software to predict the drug content in previously unseen spectra.