NCJ Number
223393
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2008 Pages: 668-676
Date Published
May 2008
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This paper describes the detection of accelerants in fire debris by means of a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) procedure that involves direct contact between the SPME fibers and the solid matrix and subsequent gas chromatography/mass spectrometric analysis.
Abstract
The extraction performance of six fibers (100m polydimethylsiloxane [PDMS], 65 mm polydimethylsiloxane-divinylbenzene, 85 mm polyacrylate, 85 mm carboxen-polydimethylsiloxane, 70 mm Carbowax-divinylbenzene, and 50/30 mm divinylbenzene-Carboxen-polydimethylsiloxane) found that the PDMS fiber was the most suitable based on the recovery property and usefulness for the extraction of bulk gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel. The extraction time was 15 minutes at ambient temperature. Compared with headspace SPME (HS-SPME), direct-contact SPME proved to be a better recovery for gasoline and a very limited recovery for diesel fuel spiked in soil matrix when the spiked volume was small. On the other hand, recovery of low-volatile components in diesel fuel from fire debris was much higher for direct-contact SPME than for HS-SPME. Ignitable liquids were successfully detected regardless of the sampling position in the soil matrix. Repeated use of an SPME fiber was possible with this method. Direct-contact SPME could be useful in the extraction of ignitable liquids in fire debris wrapped in plastic bags. This method is also suitable as a screening method for forensic evidence, because analysis at ambient temperature protects the evidence from degradation, making the reanalysis of the evidence by other methods possible. 2 tables, 8 figures, and 29 references