Reagents for the Chemical Development of Latent Fingerprints: Scope and Limitations of Benzo[f]ninhydrin in Comparison to Ninhydrin

Almog, Joseph; Sears, VG; Springer, Eliot; Hewlett, DF; Walker, G. Stewart; Wiesner, Sarena; Lidor, R.; Bahar, Eyal

doi:10.1520/jfs14726j

Cited by 27 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Modifications of ninhydrin have been another focus of research, with many analogues produced and evaluated including 5-methylthioninhydrin (Almog et al, 1992), 5-methoxyninhydrin (Lennard, Margot, Stoilovic, & Warrener, 1986), and benzo[f]ninhydrin (Almog et al, 2000). Of all of these analogues, 5-methylthioninhydrin (5MTN) has proved most useful.…”

Section: Amino Acidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The forensic exploitation of fingermark chemistry: A review

Bleay

Bailey

Croxton

et al. 2020

WIREs Forensic Science

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The substances deposited from the fingertip onto a surface during contact between them represent a highly complex range of chemicals that can be exploited in a variety of ways in a forensic investigation. An overview is given of the multitude of chemicals that have been detected in fingermarks, including those occurring in endogenous sweat, metabolites of ingested substances, and exogenous substances picked up on the fingertip. Changes in chemistry that may occur between deposition of the fingermark and its subsequent forensic analysis are discussed, with particular reference to the ways in which these changes have been considered as a means of dating fingermarks. The ways in which fingermark enhancement reagents utilize the different chemicals present to reveal ridge is reviewed, together with how different classes of chemical can be sequentially targeted to optimize the number of fingermarks recovered.A field of increasing interest is the use of advanced analytical techniques incorporating mass spectrometry and imaging capability to simultaneously obtain additional contextual information about the donor of the mark while visualizing the fingermark ridge pattern. Examples are given of how such information can be applied in forensic investigations. It is concluded that an extensive "tool kit" of fingermark enhancement processes is already available to utilize the different chemicals present, and the advances that can be made in this field using conventional approaches are limited. There is, instead, significant potential to utilize analytical techniques to forensically exploit the chemical information within fingermarks but there are also significant barriers to their implementation in this way.

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Section: Amino Acidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The forensic exploitation of fingermark chemistry: A review

Bleay

Bailey

Croxton

et al. 2020

WIREs Forensic Science

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“…Ninhydrin is recognised as the predominant reagent for the visualisation of latent fingermarks on porous surfaces to aid criminal investigations [49][50][51][52]. On reaction with amino acids, ninhydrin (2,2-dihydroxy-1,3-indanedione) forms a non-fluorescent purple product.…”

Section: Ninhydrinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reagent was first synthesised and discovered to react with amino acids in 1910 by Siegfried Ruhemann. A colour change was observed after the reagent contacted his skin, with the formation of a purple compound that was subsequently named "Ruhemann's purple" [49,52]. It took until the mid 1950s before the suggestion was made, by Oden and von Hofsten, that ninhydrin could be used as a means to detect latent fingermarks on porous substrates [7].…”

Section: Ninhydrinmentioning

confidence: 99%

The detection of latent fingermarks on porous surfaces using amino acid sensitive reagents: A review

Jelly

Patton

Lennard

et al. 2009

Analytica Chimica Acta

112

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The introduction of ninhydrin treatment as a chemical technique for the visualisation of latent fingermarks on porous surfaces revolutionised approaches to forensic fingermark examination. Since then, a range of amino acid sensitive reagents has been developed and such compounds are in widespread use by law enforcement agencies worldwide. This paper reviews the development and use of these reagents for the detection of latent fingermarks on porous surfaces. A brief overview is provided, including an historical background, forensic significance, and a general approach to the development of latent fingermarks on porous surfaces. This is followed by a discussion of specific amino acid sensitive treatments.

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“…Over the past century, many fingerprint development approaches have been studied, including optical, physical, and chemical processes. [7,8] If a latent fingerprint left at a crime scene cannot be developed clearly by a valid method, proper fingerprint analysis and identification will be difficult to achieve. Therefore, latent fingerprint development is crucial to identifying individuals in forensic sciences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluorescent Nanomaterials for the Development of Latent Fingerprints in Forensic Sciences

Wang

et al. 2017

Adv Funct Materials

214

159

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This review presents an overview on the application of latent fingerprint development techniques in forensic sciences. At present, traditional developing methods such as powder dusting, cyanoacrylate fuming, chemical method, and small particle reagent method, have all been gradually compromised given their emerging drawbacks such as low contrast, sensitivity, and selectivity, as well as high toxicity. Recently, much attention has been paid to the use of fluorescent nanomaterials including quantum dots (QDs) and rare earth upconversion fluorescent nanomaterials (UCNMs) due to their unique optical and chemical properties. Thus, this review lays emphasis on latent fingerprint development based on QDs and UCNMs. Compared to latent fingerprint development by traditional methods, the new methods using fluorescent nanomaterials can achieve high contrast, sensitivity, and selectivity while showing reduced toxicity. Overall, this review provides a systematic overview on such methods.

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Reagents for the Chemical Development of Latent Fingerprints: Scope and Limitations of Benzo[f]ninhydrin in Comparison to Ninhydrin

Cited by 27 publications

References 9 publications

The forensic exploitation of fingermark chemistry: A review

The forensic exploitation of fingermark chemistry: A review

The detection of latent fingermarks on porous surfaces using amino acid sensitive reagents: A review

Fluorescent Nanomaterials for the Development of Latent Fingerprints in Forensic Sciences

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