Showcasing water-based delivery of an amino acid targeting fingermark developer in a hydrogel.

Autor: Clarke KT; Queensland Micro, and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia; School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia., Hopkins SL; School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia., Krosch MN; Quality Management Section, Forensic Services Group, Queensland Police Service, Brisbane, QLD, 4000., Cresswell SL; School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia., Gee WJ; Queensland Micro, and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia; School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia. Electronic address: W.Gee@griffith.edu.au.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Forensic science international [Forensic Sci Int] 2024 Jul; Vol. 360, pp. 112045. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Apr 26.
DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2024.112045
Abstrakt: Most recommended methods for visualising fingermarks on paper rely on chemical developers that target and react with amino acids. Traditionally, these developers are sprayed onto paper substrates in solutions of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), but now those same PFAS chemicals are undergoing phaseout or phasedown, which threatens to undermine forensic capabilities. This situation provides an opportunity to pivot towards greener approaches to fingermark visualisation. The ideal methodology would be a water-based treatment, as these provide superior safety for practitioners, combined with environmental sustainability. A major hurdle to implementing a water-based fingermark developer targeting amino acids is that water, as a universal solvent, can dissolve the eccrine components in fingermarks, as well as any optical or luminescent dyes that are created, causing the ridge detail to run or dissolve. This work circumvents this problem by delivering the amino acid developer alloxan in a hydrogel, which enables sharp fingermark ridge details to be observed despite it being a water-based treatment. Alloxan dissolved in a viscous hydrogel is shown here to react with the amino acids in fingerprint residues to form the coloured dye murexide, supported by optimisation and characterisation studies.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interest or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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