Citation

Wang Z, Zang T, Zhou H. J. Forensic Sci. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Trace Examination, Criminal Investigation Police, University of China, 83 Ta-wan Street, Huang-gu District, Shenyang, 110035, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.14317

PMID

32202655

Abstract

Plastic bottles are commonly encountered in drug cases where they are used as packaging materials and produced with polymers. However, to the best of our knowledge, systematic studies on the evidential values of medicine bottles have not been carried out. Therefore, it is difficult practically to determine if it is possible to identify whether the plastic bottles are manufactured with the same steel mold by comparing the manufacturing marks on plastic bottles. This paper reports the successful attempt of the authors in establishing a definite relationship between three different medicine bottles with a steel mold recovered from suspects. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to characterize the chemical composition of submitted medicine bottles, and then some physical characteristics (viz., total length, length, and diameter of different parts) and the manufactured marks on these bottles were examined. The results showed that the linkage of the medicine bottles to a steel mold was successfully established using the similarities in physical characteristics and manufacturing marks. In the process, the FT-IR was only complementary in the identification process. The individual characteristics of plastic medicine bottles included the imperfections and striated impressions that were produced by the grinding patterns on the inner surface of a steel mold.

© 2020 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

fake drug case; forensic science; fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; manufacturing marks; marks comparison; medicine bottles; steel mold