Forensic cadaveric decomposition profiling by GC×GC-TOFMS analysis of VOCS

Abstract

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Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) has been used to analyze complex mixtures of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced during cadaveric decomposition processes. The use of specific mass spectrometric scripting approaches permitted to easily identify gravesoils from control soils. The high peak capacity of the system, as well as the development of a specific data processing approach allowed the isolation and identification of several hundreds of specific analytes. When coupled to thermal desorption (TD), GC×GC-TOFMS is the tool of choice for cadaveric VOC profiling.