Multi-elemental analysis of solder using ETV-ICPOES for applications in forensic science

Abstract

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are becoming increasingly common in modern terrorism. If solder from an IED recovered from the crime scene can be analyzed and compared to solder taken from...

Forensic analysis by solid sampling electrothermal vaporization coupled to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

“…In other words, items must present some degree of individuation in order to be discriminated from other samples of the same category. Methods of comparison have been successfully applied to match samples of solders, 15,33,69 copper wires, 70 document papers, 71,72 and more. Comparison analyses help establish the origin of the evidence and may implicate a suspect if the reference sample is obtained from their possession or primary residence.…”

“…7 A comparison of element concentrations in ON-003 before and after melting with a Cu-tipped soldering iron. 33 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2023…”

“…30 Finally, MacConnachie et al established solder from IEDs as a fingerprint to the tools or materials used for its construction. 33 In forensics, ETV-ICPOES is an evolving technique that continues to grow in capability and find new application for different types of evidence, exhibits, and artifacts. Further developments should focus on enhancing the specificity of the classification models.…”

Atomic spectrometry update: review of advances in the analysis of metals, chemicals and materials

“…However, there has also been a good selection of other techniques employed and these will all be discussed in this section. A forensic application relevant to this section has been placed in the inorganic forensic section (Section 5.4) of the review, 38 The reader is referred there for more details.…”

“…Such an application has been undertaken by MacConnachie et al who used electrothermal vaporization (ETV)-ICP-OES for determining Ag, As, Bi, Cu and Sb as well as the matrix elements Pb and Sn. 38 The method was calibrated by using the material NIST 1131 solder, i.e. it was a matrix matched calibration.…”