Study of Spectral Modifications in Acidified Ignitable Liquids by Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Allan Variance Characterization of Compact Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometers

Handheld Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometers are very promising candidates for several applications where accurate real-time material detection and quantification are needed. Due to their compact size, their mode of operation which does not allow for long warm-up time, and changing environmental conditions, these spectrometers suffer from short-term noise and long-term instabilities which affect their performance. In this work, the effect of long-term multiplicative instabilities on the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), measured using the 100% line-method, is studied. An expression for the variance, in this case, is deduced. The Allan variance technique is used to identify and quantify the presence of the different types of noises. The methodology is applied to a commercial NeoSpectra scanner module from Si-Ware Systems, Inc.

Luminescence of Aromatic Compounds During Ultrasonic Treatment of Tb2(SO4)3 Suspension in Commercial Gasoline

The spectral-luminescent properties of a suspension of terbium sulfate in commercial gasoline under sonication are studied. The following emitters are identified from the luminescence spectrum: *Tb³⁺ ions in crystals, electronically excited molecules of arenes (benzene, toluene, and xylenes), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the liquid phase of the suspension. The study of sonotriboluminescence in gasoline-heptane and heptane-xylene-PAH synthetic mixtures shows for the first time that there is an effective luminescence activator in gasoline, that is, terphenyl molecules. It has been established that these molecules have the highest luminescence yield among all sonotriboluminescence emitters found. This is provided by the transfer of the excitation energy from monocyclic arene molecules primarily excited during the sonication. In this case, the primary excitation of aromatic hydrocarbon molecules in commercial gasoline during the ultrasonic treatment of suspensions occurs under the impact of charged particles/electrons generated during electrical discharges initiated by collision and destruction of microcrystals. This process is similar to radioluminescence excitation in liquid scintillators which can be considered commercial gasoline. The formation of *Tb³⁺ is due to separation and recombination processes of charges that populate the excited states of luminescence centers in microcrystals electrified during tribodestruction under sonication of the suspension.

Interpol review of fire investigation 2016–2019

This review paper covers the forensic-relevant literature in fire analysis and investigation sciences from 2016 to 2019 as a part of the 19th Interpol International Forensic Science Managers Symposium. The review papers are also available at the Interpol website at: https://www.interpol.int/content/download/14458/file/Interpol%20Review%20Papers%202019.pdf.

Effects of Fire Suppression Agents and Weathering in the Analysis of Fire Debris by HS-MS eNose

In arson attacks the detection of ignitable liquid residues (ILRs) at fire scenes provides key evidence since ignitable liquids, such as gasoline, are commonly used to initiate the fire. In most forensic laboratories gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is employed for the analysis of ILRs. When a fire occurs, suppression agents are used to extinguish the fire and, before the scene is investigated, the samples at the scene are subjected to a variety of processes such as weathering, which can significantly modify the chemical composition and thus lead to erroneous conclusions. In order to avoid this possibility, the application of chemometric tools that help the analyst to extract useful information from data is very advantageous. The study described here concerned the application of a headspace-mass spectrometry electronic nose (HS-MS eNose) combined with chemometric tools to determine the presence/absence of gasoline in weathered fire debris samples. The effect of applying two suppression agents (Cafoam Aquafoam AF-6 and Pyro-chem PK-80 Powder) and delays in the sampling time (from 0 to 48 h) were studied. It was found that, although the suppression systems affect the mass spectra, the HS-MS eNose in combination with suitable pattern recognition chemometric tools, such as linear discriminant analysis, is able to identify the presence of gasoline in any of the studied situations (100% correct classification).