A Study on an Effective Detection Method for Ignitable Liquid Residues using FT-IR analysis

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify fire causes through scientific experiments and analysis and to find a new method that can analyze various fire debris. In general, when analyzing fire debris, especially ignitable liquids, GC/MS which is a time consuming and complicated method is used to identify the presence or absence of a fire accelerant(or a ignitable liquid) in a combustion residue. Therefore, in this study, three types of combustion accelerants and fabrics were selected. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) of ATR which is both a qualitative and a quantitative chemical analysis method was used for rapid analysis. After preparing samples through fire experiments, a library database was created in the device by measurements of samples and applicability of FT-IR analysis for identifying fire accelerants was identified.