Category
Basic
Description
Cyanoacrylate fumigation is a widely used fingerprint development method to visualize latent fingerprints left on nonporous surfaces. This methodology relies on heating cyanoacrylate, otherwise known as superglue, to create vapors that polymerize onto fingerprints. These vapors react via biological components such as amino acids and other residues left from finger oils. This technique is very effective; however, once the polymer has completed its reaction the fingerprint is colorless resulting in the need for a secondary staining technique. The additional procedure increases processing time and introduces potentials for smearing or human error. This research aims to investigate a way to consolidate these two methods into a modified one step cyanoacrylate fumigation method through the incorporation of various marker, highlighter, and common house hold dyes. It has been hypothesized that introducing these dyes into the fumigation chamber in some way, will allow simultaneous polymerization and coloration of latent print residues. This would eliminate any secondary visualization techniques with powders or stains. Two experimental approaches have been analyzed, the first was the addition of dyes onto pre-treated cotton balls of 5% sodium hydroxide prior to vaporization and the second was the direct mixing of cyanoacrylate and common dyes to create a colored superglue to use for fingerprint fumigation. If a successful method can be found, this single step method could reduce development time, minimize human handling and contamination, and maintain effective visualization quality.
Single Step Cyanoacrylate Fumigation with Common Dyes
Basic
Cyanoacrylate fumigation is a widely used fingerprint development method to visualize latent fingerprints left on nonporous surfaces. This methodology relies on heating cyanoacrylate, otherwise known as superglue, to create vapors that polymerize onto fingerprints. These vapors react via biological components such as amino acids and other residues left from finger oils. This technique is very effective; however, once the polymer has completed its reaction the fingerprint is colorless resulting in the need for a secondary staining technique. The additional procedure increases processing time and introduces potentials for smearing or human error. This research aims to investigate a way to consolidate these two methods into a modified one step cyanoacrylate fumigation method through the incorporation of various marker, highlighter, and common house hold dyes. It has been hypothesized that introducing these dyes into the fumigation chamber in some way, will allow simultaneous polymerization and coloration of latent print residues. This would eliminate any secondary visualization techniques with powders or stains. Two experimental approaches have been analyzed, the first was the addition of dyes onto pre-treated cotton balls of 5% sodium hydroxide prior to vaporization and the second was the direct mixing of cyanoacrylate and common dyes to create a colored superglue to use for fingerprint fumigation. If a successful method can be found, this single step method could reduce development time, minimize human handling and contamination, and maintain effective visualization quality.
