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ISSN 2063-5346
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Application of GC-MS/MS in Profiling of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons on Completely Burned Cloth Matrix for Source Identification in Fire Investigation

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Ashwini Satpute1 and Astha Pandey1*
» doi: 10.48047/ecb/2023.12.10.476

Abstract

Fire burning cases are most challenging in the field of forensic investigationwhenit is important to prove the whether the incident of fire isdue to presence of any fire accelerant or not. Routine fire accelerant identification in forensic laboratory involves the extraction and analysis by GC-FID and its identification is based on comparison of obtained chromatogram with control chromatogram of petrol, diesel and kerosene. This routine method of analysis shows certain limitation when other than above mentioned fire accelerants involved in the incident. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) ubiquitous in nature present in petroleum products in varying concentrations. They are used as a marker for chemical fingerprinting of crude oil, adulteration detection of kerosene in petrol and diesel, source liability determination in environmental contamination, and oil spill cases. The present study conducted to show how PAHs can be utilize in the identification of fire accelerant in forensic investigation. In present study cloth sample was burned with 15 different fire accelerants and extracted with Hexane:Acetone: Dichlromethane with ultrasonicator and 18 PAHs were quantified with GC-MS/MS to create chemical profile for all fire accelerant used in this study. It was found that all different 15fire accelerantsproduce different 18 PAHs profile qualitatively and quantitatively hence PAHs profiling could be used in forensic investigation in replacement of routine fire accelerant identification by pattern comparison method.

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