Forensic chemistry is the application of analytical chemistry to forensic analysis and is today one of the hot topics in the scientific literature and this review discusses works published between 2013 and 2017 regarding portable or potentially portable analytical methods that can be used in different areas of forensic chemistry.

An artificial neural network was used to build models caple of predicting and quantifying vodka adulteration with methanol and/or tap water. A voltammetric electronic tongue based on gold and copper microelectrodes was used, and 310 analyses were performed. Vodkas were adulterated with tap water (5 to 50% (v/v)), methanol (1 to 13% (v/v)), and with a fixed addition of 5% methanol and tap water varying from 5 to 50% (v/v). The classification model showed 99.5% precision, and it correctly predicted the type of adulterant in all samples. Regarding the regression model, the root mean squared error was 3.464% and 0.535% for the water and methanol addition, respectively, and the prediction of the adulterant content presented an R2 0.9511 for methanol and 0.9831 for water adulteration.