Strategies for Potential Age Dating of Fingerprints through the Diffusion of Sebum Molecules on a Non-porous Surface

Published

July 17, 2015

Author(s)

Shinichiro Muramoto, Edward Sisco

Abstract

Age dating of fingerprints can have a significant impact in forensic science, as it has the potential to facilitate the judicial process by assessing the relevance of a fingerprint found in a crime scene. However, no reliable method currently exists that can reliably predict the age of a latent fingerprint. In this manuscript, time-of-flight secondary ion imaging mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was used to measure the diffusivity of squalene and fatty acid molecules from a fingerprint on a silicon wafer. It was found that their diffusion from relatively fresh fingerprints (t ≤ 96 hrs) could be modeled using an error function, with diffusivities (mm2/hr) that followed a power function when plotted against molecular weight. The equation x=0.02〖 t 〗^0.5 was obtained for palmitic acid that could be used to find its position in mm (where the concentration is 50% of its initial value, or c0/2) as a function of time in t hrs.

Citation

Analytical Chemistry

Volume

87

Issue

16

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Keywords

tof-sims, chemical imaging, fingerprints, sebum, forensics, diffusion

Citation

Muramoto, S. and Sisco, E. (2015), Strategies for Potential Age Dating of Fingerprints through the Diffusion of Sebum Molecules on a Non-porous Surface, Analytical Chemistry, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02018 (Accessed October 9, 2025)