This project report contributes to the advancement of forensic analytical techniques for detecting ignitable liquid residues by expanding on the limited research on methods, beyond the conventional GC/MS, for analyzing those ignitable liquid residues in a forensic context.
This paper reports on a project that used DART-MS to detect less-volatile components in ignitable liquid (IL) residues and applied multivariate statistical methods to enhance the discrimination of different ILs across various substrates and fire debris samples. The detection of less-volatile compounds in IL residues is especially relevant for arson investigations since it helps identify or narrow down potential ILs. Less-volatile residues such as glycol ethers, heavy hydrocarbons, and fuel additives, are fairly prevalent in various ILs, and this paper describes the identification of less-volatile marker compounds and the development of extraction methods for targeting those markers. The method reported in this paper revealed less-volatile markers in IL residues which significantly enhanced the evidentiary value of the samples. DART-MS provided complementary data on less-volatile chemicals such as ion clusters for fuel additives, offering orthogonal insights that enhanced the existing GC/MS methodology.