Abrégé

The invention concerns a method and apparatus for detecting the presence of diamond in a particle and for sorting particles according to whether or not they include diamonds. In the method, the particle is irradiated (36) with photons of selected energy at which the GDR (giant dipole resonance) is excited for the nuclear reaction of the photons with carbon, and the particle is identified as potentially a diamond or diamond-containing particle according to its interaction within the incident photons. In the preferred embodiments, the particle is identified (42) as potentially a diamond or diamond-containing particle according to whether the isotope 11C, with a characteristic half-life of approximately twenty minutes, is produced by the photon/carbon nuclear reaction, and according to whether detectable coincident and collinear gamma ray photons at a distinctive energy level are emitted by the particle.

Classes IPC  ?

• G01N 23/221 - Recherche ou analyse des matériaux par l'utilisation de rayonnement [ondes ou particules], p. ex. rayons X ou neutrons, non couvertes par les groupes , ou en mesurant l'émission secondaire de matériaux utilisant l'analyse par activation
• B07C 5/346 - Tri en fonction d'autres propriétés particulières selon les propriétés radioactives