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Identification of detergents for forensic fiber analysis

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Abstract

Trace fibers are an important form of trace evidence, and identification of exogenous substances on textile fibers provides valuable information about the origin of the fiber. Laundering textiles can provide a unique fluorescent spectral signature of the whitening agent in the detergent that adsorbs to the fiber. Using fluorescence microscopy, the spectral characteristics of seven detergents adsorbed to single fibers drawn from laundered textiles were investigated, and principal component analysis of clusters was used to characterize the type of detergent on the fiber. On dyed nylon fibers, spectra from eight different detergent pairs could be resolved and washed validation fibers correctly classified. On dyed acrylic fibers, five different detergent pairs could be resolved and identified. Identification of the detergent type may prove useful in matching a trace fiber to its bulk specimen of origin.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institute of Justice (Grant #2011-DN-BX-K553).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, 4111 Libra Drive, P.O. Box 25000, Orlando, FL, 32816-2366, USA

    Emily C. Heider, Nirvani Mujumdar & Andres D. Campiglia

  2. National Center for Forensic Science, University of Central Florida, P.O. Box 162367, Orlando, FL, 32816-2367, USA

    Andres D. Campiglia

Authors
  1. Emily C. Heider
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  2. Nirvani Mujumdar
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  3. Andres D. Campiglia
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Correspondence to Andres D. Campiglia.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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No experiments involved research with human or animal subjects.

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Electronic supplementary material

The Electronic Supplementary Material document contains cluster plots for all combinations of detergent pairs on acrylic and nylon fibers.

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Heider, E.C., Mujumdar, N. & Campiglia, A.D. Identification of detergents for forensic fiber analysis. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 7935–7943 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9927-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9927-8

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