A sensitive HPLC-MS/MS method for the analysis of fiber dyes

Abstract

Textile fibers are frequently encountered as trace evidence. The identification and comparison of fibers is very important for case investigation, and an important aspect of forensic fiber examination is the characterization of fiber dyes. Fibers recovered at crime scenes are often very small and contain multiple dyes, which require a high demand for the sensitivity and separation efficiency of dye analysis methods. The combination of high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) is a highly selective and sensitive analytical method that can be useful for the characterization of dyes. A sensitive HPLC-MS/MS method is described here to analyze fiber dyes in different classes (acid, basic, direct, reactive, and disperse). Acetonitrile/water addicted with 0.1% acetic acid was utilized as the mobile phase. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) for different dyes reached 0.01–16.7 ng/mL in Multi Reaction Monitor (MRM) mode. The described method is sensitive enough to analyze single fibers with a length of a few millimeters or less, which makes it suitable for forensic analysis.