Candle Soot Coating for Latent Fingermark Enhancement on Various Surfaces.

Qianhui Wei,Mi Shi,Xueji Zhang,Xiaolong Li,Meiqin Zhang,Yongjie Gao,Shouliang Liu,Yu Zhu

doi:10.3390/s17071612

Qianhui Wei, Mi Shi + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071612

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Abstract

We demonstrate a facile method termed candle soot coating (CSC) for fast developing latent fingermarks (LFMs) on various kinds of surfaces (glass, ceramic, metal, paper and adhesive tape). The CSC method can be considered as simple, fast, and low-cost as well as providing high contrast for LFM visualization in potential forensic applications.

Highlights

Fingermarks have been recognized as the most powerful evidence of personal identification in forensic investigation for over a hundred years [1,2]
A large number of methods including chemical, physical and optical enhancements have been developed in latent fingermarks (LFMs) detection
A series of novel techniques has been involved in LFM detection as powerful tools to overcome the sensitivity and selectivity issues currently encountered, including the immuno-labeling technique, electrochemical surface plasmon resonance, the nanoplasmonic method, mass spectrometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, electrochemiluminescence and scanning electrochemical microscopy [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]

Summary

Introduction

Fingermarks have been recognized as the most powerful evidence of personal identification in forensic investigation for over a hundred years [1,2]. A series of novel techniques has been involved in LFM detection as powerful tools to overcome the sensitivity and selectivity issues currently encountered, including the immuno-labeling technique, electrochemical surface plasmon resonance, the nanoplasmonic method, mass spectrometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, electrochemiluminescence and scanning electrochemical microscopy [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. Most of these methods involved sophisticated or expensive instruments, or labor-consuming protocols. For the first time, we demonstrated an approach that visualized LFMs on various kinds of substrates (glass, ceramic, metal, paper and adhesive tape) by just burning a candle and soot deposition in a fast and simple way

Experimental and Discussion

Conclusions