European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

FORENSIC ANALYSIS OF ACID AFFECTED TEXTILE FIBRES USING SPECTROSCOPIC TECHNIQUES: A REVIEW

Uzma Mushtaq*, Ansil P. Naseef, Nithin Kumar Reddy

ABSTRACT

Corrosive substances are often involved in acid-attacks, industrial accidents, evidence destruction, and chemical assaults. The effect of strong mineral acids like sulphuric, hydrochloric, and nitric acids on various materials may be determined by characteristic alterations such as textile fiber degradation, paper yellowing, wood carbonization, polymer chain cracking, rubber decarboxylation, and skin protein denaturation.[8–10] Modern analytical techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and chemometrics have been utilized to investigate the nature of corrosive injury.[1,3–7,11–14] The present review focuses on the effect of selected corrosive substances on various materials with an emphasis on textile fibers and the analytical techniques applied for their forensic analysis. The survey revealed that natural protein fibers undergo hydrolysis, dehydration, carbonization, and structural damage while most synthetic fibers experience melting, shrinking, and surface defect formation when exposed to the influence of strong acids.[8,9,14] The current study also identified the necessity of additional methodological and database developments for the reliable identification of corrosive substances in a forensic setting.[2,10,13,14]

Keywords: Corrosive substances; Forensic examination; Acid attacks; Textile damage; FTIR; ATR-FTIR; Scanning Electron Microscopy; Chemometrics; Crime scene reconstruction; Forensic chemistry.