New Reagents for the Development of Latent Fingerprints

• NCJ Number: 179287
• Author(s): Madeleine M. Joullie Ph.D.
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 19 pages
• Grant Number(s): 92-IJ-CX-K0154
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/NCJRS; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Series: NIJ Research Report
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Technical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper discusses new reagents for the development of latent fingerprints.

Abstract

Some of the most affordable and useful reagents for visualization of latent fingerprints on porous surfaces such as paper, wood, and walls are ninhydrin and modified ninhydrins. The paper reviews the development and evaluation of several synthetic approaches that provided 21 new substituted ninhydrins. These reagents were evaluated for fingerprint visualization by forensic experts in the United States, England, Switzerland, Australia, and Israel. The new methodology afforded two complementary reagents which displayed similar fingerprint developing properties. One of the reagents was produced on a large scale by a firm in North Ireland to investigate its potential for commercialization. In addition, structural modifications of ninhydrin-based reagents expanded their solubilities in suitable organic solvents (methylene chloride, toluene, hexanes, etc.). Notes, bibliography, figures, tables