This study explores trends in the effectiveness of 1,2-indandione/zinc chloride (IND/Zn) for visualizing latent fingermarks on paper substrates of various ages. Preliminary investigation of contemporaneous documents showed that high quality fingermarks could be deposited through incidental handling, although smudging and overlapping were evident. IND/Zn was then applied to incidentally handled documents up to 80 years old and successfully developed potentially identifiable fingermarks, significantly increasing the established timescale for fingermark detection with amino acid sensitive reagents. The results indicate that IND/Zn remains effective over longer periods than has been previously demonstrated, although a comparison between documents of different ages suggest that progressive diffusion of the target amino acids occurs over time, affecting the proportion of potentially identifiable marks.The findings of this study reinforce the applicability of IND/Zn for the detection of historic latent fingermarks on old paper documents.
This study compared the composition and effectiveness of three active 1,2-indanedione-zinc (IND-Zn) formulations for the detection of latent fingermarks on a variety of substrates commonly encountered in Seychelles. Fingermarks on five porous substrates were treated using IND-Zn formulations operationally used by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), UK Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST), and German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA). Despite the variations in composition, primarily associated with the difference in the carrier solvents, all three formulations gave similar sensitivity. However, BKA was identified as the most effective formulation in consideration of cost and supply chain issues, which could be adopted for use in resource-limited micro-jurisdictions with minimum modification. Further experiments also found that using ethanol as a substitute co- solvent to methanol did not significantly reduce sensitivity, which could provide a safer modification of the CAST formulation used in other regions. The findings provide the basis for developing an effective but sustainable IND-Zn formulation for the Seychelles Police, resilient to the challenges of resource limitations and supply chain disruption, which may also be applicable to other micro-jurisdictions.
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