Blue and Black Ballpoint Pen Inks: a Systematic Review for Ink Characterization and Dating Analysis

Abstract

Documents are frequent targets of fraud and adulteration. Sometimes it is not enough to determine the document's authenticity or authorship, but it is also necessary to demonstrate when the document was signed or written. Determining the age of a document, also known as ink dating analysis, is still a challenge for the forensic examiners. There are two main approaches for the dating of ballpoint pen inks: the static method, which is based on the characterization and identification of the ink composition and comparison to a reference collection, and the dynamic method, which involves the study of ink's processes and alterations that occur with time, considering environmental aging factors such as light and humidity. This article aims to provide a comprehensive systematic review of the studies regarding ballpoint ink characterization and dating, in the last ten years. There are several methods, destructive and non-destructive, which are capable of characterizing and differentiating blue and black ballpoint pens that have shown applicability to the static approach. Regarding the dynamic dating methods, most studies quantified the loss of 2phenoxyethanol (2-PE) solvent over time using GC-MS, or studied the dyes degradation through different methods. Although ink dating approaches offer relatively good accuracy, there is still more research to be done, such as the documents' storage conditions evaluation, the influence of initial ink quantity variation between different pen brands and writing fists, and the type of paper.

Interpol questioned documents review 2019–2022

“…including any other technology used to prepare the document. The following 64 articles [ [548] , [549] , [550] , [551] , [552] , [553] , [554] , [555] , [556] , [557] , [558] , [559] , [560] , [561] , [562] , [563] , [564] , [565] , [566] , [567] , [568] , [569] , [570] , [571] , [572] , [573] , [574] , [575] , [576] , [577] , [578] , [579] , [580] ] [ [581] , [582] , [583] , [584] , [585] , [586] , [587] , [588] , [589] , [590] , [591] , [592] , [593] , [594] , [595] , [596] , [597] , [598] , [599] , [600] , [601] , [602] , [603] , [604] , [605] , [606] , [607] , [608] , [609] , [610] , [611] ], combined with 17 presentations [...…”

Combination of a Green and a Traditional Method for Estimating Relative and Absolute Ink Age: A Case Study of Ballpoint Pen Ink Dating in Vietnam

“…According to a recent systematic review on ballpoint pen ink characterization and dating analysis, the majority of articles on black and blue ballpoint pen ink dating in the last decade have focused on differentiation and/or dating using analytical techniques that investigate a single parameter (2PE, CV, or resin polymerization) [ 40 ]. The relative dating methods are applied when the questioned documents contain two questionable inks which needed to be measured and compared, while absolute dating methods (also called dynamic dating) are used to investigate ink's components change over time [ 40 ].…”

“…According to a recent systematic review on ballpoint pen ink characterization and dating analysis, the majority of articles on black and blue ballpoint pen ink dating in the last decade have focused on differentiation and/or dating using analytical techniques that investigate a single parameter (2PE, CV, or resin polymerization) [ 40 ]. The relative dating methods are applied when the questioned documents contain two questionable inks which needed to be measured and compared, while absolute dating methods (also called dynamic dating) are used to investigate ink's components change over time [ 40 ]. In the present study, we aimed to concurrently investigate different parameters (CV, 2PE, and paper) using techniques such as the recently developed Raman spectrometry-based dynamic dating method [ 4 ] combined with HPTLC and paper characteristic measurements to estimate the relative and absolute questioned ink's age.…”

Blue Ballpoint Pen Inks Differentiation using Multivariate Image Analysis of Digital Images Captured with PhotoMetrix PRO®

“…In the past few years, many methods have been developed for ink characterization 5 . Some of those methods were designed as destructive for the document, when it is necessary to cut a part of the document to extract the pen ink, which is not the best option for Forensic Science.…”