The inhibition by amines and amino acids of bleach-induced luminol chemiluminescence during forensic screening for blood

Abstract

Sprays containing alkaline solutions of peroxide and luminol are used as presumptive screens for bloodstains at crime scenes. These sprays can be subject to interference from hypochlorite-based cleaning agents (bleaches), leading to false positive results. This paper reports the screening of amines for their ability to decrease the interference by bleach while not greatly affecting the reaction with blood. The addition of glycine (0.05 mol L −1) to the Grodsky formulation of luminol spray, together with an adjustment of the pH to 12, gave good discrimination between blood and bleach, and has the advantage that glycine is non-toxic compared to many other amines. The modified spray gave similar chemiluminescence intensity and duration as the unmodified Grodsky spray. However, it is recommended that this modification only be used when there is evidence that hypochlorite bleach may have been used at a scene. The amines triethylamine and sulfamate led to enhanced chemiluminescence in the presence of hypochlorite.