U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Raman spectroscopic signature of blood and its potential application to forensic body fluid identification

NCJ Number
255492
Journal
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry Volume: 396 Issue: 1 Dated: 2010 Pages: 525-534
Author(s)
K. Virkler; I. K. Lednev
Date Published
2010
Length
10 pages
Annotation

This project used near-infrared (NIR) Raman spectroscopy to measure spectra of dried human blood samples from multiple donors.

Abstract

Two major issues addressed in this paper involved the influence of sample heterogeneity and potential Raman spectral variations that could arise between different donors of blood. Advanced statistical analysis of spectra obtained from multiple spots on dry samples showed that dry blood is chemically heterogeneous, and its Raman spectra could be presented very well as a linear combination of a fluorescent background and two Raman spectroscopic components that are dominated by hemoglobin and fibrin, respectively. Each sample Raman spectrum contains the same major peaks, but the relative contribution of the hemoglobin and fibrin components varies with the donor; therefore, no single spectrum could adequately represent an experimental Raman spectrum of dry blood in a quantitative way, but rather the combination of hemoglobin and fibrin spectral components could be considered to be a spectroscopic signature for blood. This proof-of-concept approach shows the potential for Raman spectroscopy to be used in forensic analysis to identify an unknown substance such as blood. 68 references (publisher abstract modified)