Greener Journal of Physical Sciences

Greener Journal of  Physical Sciences  Vol. 3 (2), pp. 066-069, February 2013. 

ISSN: 2276-7851 © 2011 Greener Journals

Research Paper

Manuscript Number: 012213405

 

Elemental Analysis of Opaque Thin Film Coating on Mobile Phone Scratch Cards

 

T. S. Bichi^1*, P. O. Akusu², S. B. Muhammad³ and Mallam, S. P.

 

¹Department of Physics, Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil

²Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), Abuja

³Ministry of Education, Kano State

 

^1*Corresponding Author’s Email: tsbichiosh @ yahoo.com

Abstract:

The opaque thin film material used to cover the Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) on mobile phone scratch cards for three GSM lines coded A,B and C is collected in three separate small plastic bottles. The substance is introduced to the nozzle of an XRF machine in order to determine its elemental composition. Results show that the substance used by all the three GSM lines to cover the PIN on their respective scratch cards mainly contains metals such as titanium, potassium, iron, calcium and zinc. It also shows complete absence of radioactive isotopes such as Uranium, Thorium, Radium or polonium in the substance. The implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.
 
Keywords: XRF Machine, Elemental Content, Telecommunication and Scratch Card.

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