Identification of Asbestos by Laser-Induced Fluorescence Microscopy

Microscopic studies on laser-induced fluorescence emitted from asbestos (chrysotile) and a building material (glass-wool : an alternative material for asbestos) fibrous particle excited by a ultra-violet (266 nm) laser, have been conducted in an attempt to discriminating asbestos from the other materials. Significant differences in the decay ratio and intensity of the fluorescence were observed between those fibrous particles. The result obtained in this experiment shows that microscopic analysis using the difference in the fluorescence characteristics can be useful for identifying asbestos particles from other building materials under a microscope.