Prevalence of ignitable liquids in clothing with printing.

In this study, 141 shirts were evaluated to determine the prevalence of ignitable liquids in printed shirts. Both new and worn shirts were included in this study. Volatile components extracted from the shirts were noted and many of the most commonly encountered components could be contributed to human skin or laundry, personal hygiene, or personal care products.

A review of modern challenges in fire debris analysis.

The continually-evolving field of fire debris analysis presents challenges to examiners on a regular basis. This article combines an overview of the scientific literature with novel samples that illustrate the current issues faced by fire debris examiners. Unusual liquids that contradict current classification schemes are discussed, as are complex matrices with noteworthy interferences.

Association of ignitable liquid residues to neat ignitable liquids in the presence of matrix interferences using chemometric procedures.

In fire debris analysis, weathering of ignitable liquids and matrix interferences can make the identification of ignitable liquid residues (ILRs) difficult. An objective method was developed to associate ILRs with the corresponding neat liquid with discrimination from matrix interferences using principal components analysis (PCA) and Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC) coefficients. Six ignitable liquids (gasoline, diesel, ultra pure paraffin lamp oil, adhesive remover, torch fuel, paint thinner) were spiked onto carpet, which was burned, then extracted using passive headspace extraction, and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Effect of gas chromatography temperature program on the association and discrimination of diesel samples.

Five diesel samples were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using six GC temperature programs, aiming to investigate the effect of temperature program on association and discrimination of the samples. Temperature programs varied by ramp rate and incorporated one- or two-step temperature ramps. Pearson product moment correlation coefficients and principal components analysis were used to evaluate differences in discrimination among the diesel samples afforded by each temperature program, based on the total ion chromatogram (TIC) and selected extracted ion profiles (EIPs).