NCJ Number
131353
Journal
Crime Laboratory Digest Volume: 17 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1990) Pages: 5-12
Date Published
1990
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The use of diode array ultraviolet/visible spectrophotometric detection (DAD) in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) offers many theoretical and practical advantages to forensic chemists.
Abstract
This approach allows the measurement of multiple data points on any liquid chromatographic peak, markedly improving the effectiveness of HPLC in distinguishing between structurally similar compounds. It also eliminates the doubts that often accompany identification by retention time alone, a property that is subject to variations resulting from small changes in solvent composition, slight temperature changes, injection equipment effects, and system idiosyncrasies. Its most important application is in the analysis of compounds with temperature labile or polar functional groups which are unsuitable for analysis by gas chromatography. Case examples involving a drug tablet, a sample suspected of being a mushroom containing controlled substances, and a fatality suspected of resulting from self-administration of the gout medication colchicine. Figures and 18 references