Negative results: Investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by DRIFTS-FTIR

Condom (specifically silicone) lubricants are a form of trace evidence being increasingly submitted for examination in forensic investigations of sexual assault. Interpreting these traces requires an understanding of their transfer and persistence, such as being able to quantify the amount of transf...

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Main Authors: Burnier, Celine, Monzò, M., Sauzier, Georgina, Lewis, Simon
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88830
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author Burnier, Celine
Monzò, M.
Sauzier, Georgina
Lewis, Simon
author_facet Burnier, Celine
Monzò, M.
Sauzier, Georgina
Lewis, Simon
author_sort Burnier, Celine
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Condom (specifically silicone) lubricants are a form of trace evidence being increasingly submitted for examination in forensic investigations of sexual assault. Interpreting these traces requires an understanding of their transfer and persistence, such as being able to quantify the amount of transferred material as well as the loss percentage over time. However, to the best of our knowledge, an accurate quantification method for silicone polymers within a forensic context has not been reported. This study evaluated diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), a commonly used method for qualitative analysis of condom evidence in casework, as an approach for the quantification or semi-quantification of silicone lubricants in solution. Although a general trend was observed between the DRIFTS signal and the silicone lubricant concentration, high variability between sample runs meant that these changes were not reproducible enough for quantitative prediction.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2022
publisher Elsevier
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-888302022-07-18T06:37:49Z Negative results: Investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by DRIFTS-FTIR Burnier, Celine Monzò, M. Sauzier, Georgina Lewis, Simon Lubricants Infra-red spectroscopy Quantification Chemometrics Condom (specifically silicone) lubricants are a form of trace evidence being increasingly submitted for examination in forensic investigations of sexual assault. Interpreting these traces requires an understanding of their transfer and persistence, such as being able to quantify the amount of transferred material as well as the loss percentage over time. However, to the best of our knowledge, an accurate quantification method for silicone polymers within a forensic context has not been reported. This study evaluated diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), a commonly used method for qualitative analysis of condom evidence in casework, as an approach for the quantification or semi-quantification of silicone lubricants in solution. Although a general trend was observed between the DRIFTS signal and the silicone lubricant concentration, high variability between sample runs meant that these changes were not reproducible enough for quantitative prediction. 2022 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88830 10.1016/j.fsir.2022.100283 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Elsevier fulltext
spellingShingle Lubricants
Infra-red spectroscopy
Quantification
Chemometrics
Burnier, Celine
Monzò, M.
Sauzier, Georgina
Lewis, Simon
Negative results: Investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by DRIFTS-FTIR
title Negative results: Investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by DRIFTS-FTIR
title_full Negative results: Investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by DRIFTS-FTIR
title_fullStr Negative results: Investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by DRIFTS-FTIR
title_full_unstemmed Negative results: Investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by DRIFTS-FTIR
title_short Negative results: Investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by DRIFTS-FTIR
title_sort negative results: investigations into the quantification of silicone-based condom lubricants in solution by drifts-ftir
topic Lubricants
Infra-red spectroscopy
Quantification
Chemometrics
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88830