Chemical Characterization of Latent Fingerprints by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization, Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, Mega Electron Volt Secondary Mass Spectrometry, Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, and Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging: An Intercomparison

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The first analytical intercomparison of fingerprint residue using equivalent samples of latent fingerprint residue and characterized by a suite of relevant techniques is presented. This work has never been undertaken, presumably due to the perishable nature of fingerprint residue, the lack of fingerprint standards, and the intradonor variability, which impacts sample reproducibility. For the first time, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, high-energy secondary ion mass spectrometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are used to target endogenous compounds in fingerprints and a method is presented for establishing their relative abundance in fingerprint residue. Comparison of the newer techniques with the more established gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic imaging shows good agreement between the methods, with each method detecting repeatable differences between the donors, with the exception of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization, for which quantitative analysis has not yet been established. We further comment on the sensitivity, selectivity, and practicability of each of the methods for use in future police casework or academic research.

Analysis of urine, oral fluid and fingerprints by liquid extraction surface analysis coupled to high resolution MS and MS/MS – opportunities for forensic and biomedical science

“…This may be useful when a fingerprint is smudged or details of the donor are not contained within the fingerprint database. Many techniques have been proposed for these applications, including spectroscopic techniques [30], which lack the selectivity of mass spectrometry methods; chromatography based approaches [22,29] which require considerable sample preparation and consume at least an entire fingerprint; and vacuum based methods [20][21][22][23][24][25], which have lower sample throughput and have been shown to degrade fingerprint chemistry [31].…”

Lifestyle chemistries from phones for individual profiling

“…Due to its superb sensitivity (14), mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful tool widely used for forensic applications (15) by providing either molecular (16)(17)(18)(19) or elemental analysis (20)(21)(22). Specific sets of known molecules are usually targeted in forensics applications, for example, to identify traces of illicit drugs or explosives (23)(24)(25)(26). However, individually targeting molecules for detection is not sufficient to describe the lifestyle of a given person, whereas a complete chemical signature obtained through the chemical analysis of a swab of the personal Significance This paper introduces the concept of skin-associated lifestyle chemistries found on personal belongings as a form of trace evidence.…”

Enhanced imaging of developed fingerprints using mass spectrometry imaging

“…2,12 This is likely to be due to the fact that the cyanoacrylate monomer may have formed a layer over the entire sample and therefore species from the ngerprint cannot be detected by ToF-SIMS, which is only sensitive to the surface layers. Fig.…”

“…Recent work has shown that each of these techniques can be used to provide chemical images of the compounds found in nger-marks. [2][3][4] Of these techniques, ToF-SIMS has superior spatial resolution and has been shown to provide good sensitivity to an array of endogenous and exogenous compounds in ngerprints, being sensitive to both organic and inorganic substances. 2,[5][6][7] ToF-SIMS is less destructive to the sample than MALDI or DESI, removing only a few monolayers of material.…”