Original Article 830 ferentiate blue, black and red ballpoint pen inks manufactured in Malaysia and Romania [12][13][14][15]. GC-MS is another efficient tool that discriminates inks on the basis of their non-coloured components such as their solvents and additives. It was employed to differentiate two red pilot ballpoint pen inks manufactured in 1998 and 1999 [16]. The combined use of TLC and GC-MS has solved two actual cases of alteration. Several research works have reported the characterization of blue ballpoint pen inks manufactured in different parts of the world [17-20]. However, very limited research has been conducted to differentiate the ballpoint pen inks of other colours, such as red and black.Thus, the present study was aimed at analysing red and black ballpoint pen inks of Indian origin using HPTLC and GC-MS techniques. This study also verifies the validity of the used techniques in terms of repeatability and reproducibility.
Materials and MethodsA total of 78 ballpoint pens including 40 red and 38 black pen inks were acquired from local stationary shops in India (Table-1). The collected pens were each marked with a unique sample identification code. Each pen was used to write the phrase "FORENSIC SCIENCE" multiple times on A4 sheets. Each prepared sheet was placed in separate envelopes and stored in closed cabinets at normal room temperature. Two discs (1 mm diameter) of ink strokes were punched from each prepared sheet using a metal handheld puncher and were then dissolved in 30 µL of HPLC grade methanol (Loba Chemie, Pvt. Ltd, India).Blank paper and reference dyes dissolved in methanol were considered as standard samples.