Citation

St Pierre KA, Desiderio VJ, Hall AB. Forensic Sci. Int. 2014; 240: 137-143.

Affiliation

Boston University School of Medicine, Program in Biomedical Forensic Sciences, Boston, MA, United States; Northeastern University, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Boston, MA, United States. Electronic address: a.hall@neu.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.02.017

PMID

24780556

Abstract

The recovery of low molecular weight oxygenates in fire debris samples is severely compromised by the use of heated passive headspace concentration with an activated charcoal strip, as outlined in ASTM E-1412. The term "oxygenate" is defined herein as a small, polar, organic molecule, such as acetone, methanol, ethanol, or isopropanol, which can be employed as an ignitable liquid and referred to in the ASTM classification scheme as the "oxygenated solvents" class. Although a well accepted technique, the higher affinity of activated carbon strips for heavy molecular weight products over low molecular weight products and hydrocarbons over oxygenated products, it does not allow for efficient recovery of oxygenates such as low molecular weight alcohols and acetone. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a novel method for the enhanced recovery of oxygenates from fire debris samples. By optimizing conditions of the heated passive headspace technique, the utilization of zeolites allowed for the successful collection and concentration of oxygenates. The results demonstrated that zeolites increased the recovery of oxygenates by at least 1.5-fold compared to the activated carbon strip and may complement the currently used extraction technique.

Language: en