Ballpoint Pen Inks: The Quantitative Analysis of Ink Solvents on Paper by Solid‐Phase Microextraction

Abstract

We wish to describe further developments to a method previously reported on the detection of 2-phenoxyethanol in ink. The solid-phase microextraction (SPME) sampling technique, together with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), has been used to quantify solvents in writing ink. In conventional approaches, the analysis of ink on documents requires some degree of destructive sampling. The methods commonly used remove ink samples from paper using a scalpel or a paper punch. To avoid document destruction, a sampling cell was constructed that allows solvents to be adsorbed directly onto the SPME fiber from the headspace above the document surface. Analytes (ink volatiles) are then desorbed from the SPME fiber on a gas chromatograph equipped with a mass selective detector (GC-MSD). With this method, it was possible to detect the presence of ink solvents on documents for a period lasting up to c. 2 years.

Analysis of black writing ink by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

“…Ink formulations have also been distinguished from one another by CE with a UV absorption diode array detector [5][6][7]. More volatile vehicles within ink formulations have been analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [8][9][10].…”

Química forense: perspectivas sobre novos métodos analíticos aplicados à documentoscopia, balística e drogas de abuso

“…Embora a química forense seja um tema muito importante e que desperte cada vez mais interesse perante a sociedade científica, a sua aplicação no campo da criminalística ainda constitui uma nova linha de pesquisa no Brasil. A Figura 1 mostra a distribuição dos recentes métodos analíticos que estão sendo aplicados em documentoscopia, balística forense e drogas de abuso, nos períodos de (1a) 1990-2000 e (1b-c) 2001-2010. Na documentoscopia, até 2000, as técnicas de espectroscopia molecular (infravermelho, [1][2][3][4] Raman, 5,6 fluorescência molecular 7 ) e de separação (cromatografia [8][9][10] e eletroforese [11][12][13][14][15] ) foram as mais empregadas, apresentando juntas, 219 citações (Figura 1a). A partir de 2001, com o surgimento de novas técnicas em espectrometria de massas (MS -mass spectrometry), problemas complexos que existiam até o momento tornaram-se solucionáveis.…”

Organic and inorganic discrimination of ballpoint pen inks by ToF-SIMS and multivariate statistics

“…Laser-desorption mass spectrometry (LD-MS) is a method that is minimally destructive and provides molecular level information concerning an ink's composition, including dyes, which is often not possible due to the volatility requirement of similar techniques such as GC-MS [20][21][22][23]. GC-MS can be used in a non-destructive way to analyse solvents with use of head space solid phase micro-extraction [24]. Weyermann et al utilised laser-desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) for the analysis of dyes from inks, and compared its ability to differentiate blue ballpoint pen inks to the standard method of high-performance TLC (HPTLC) [25].…”