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Forensic Analysis in Chemistry, 2nd Edition
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Forensic Analysis in Chemistry, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Analytical Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2024) | Viewed by 2268

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alexandre Quintas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Molecular Pathology and Forensic Biochemistry Laboratory, Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Universitário Egas Moniz (IUEM), Campus Universitário—Quinta da Granja, Monte da Caparica, Caparica, Portugal
Interests: forensic toxicology; drugs of abuse; novel psychoactive substances; toxicological assays; forensic chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Nuno Neng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Laboratório de Ciências Forenses e Psicológicas Egas Moniz, Egas Moniz Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Egas Moniz School of Health & Science, Almada, Portugal
2. Centro de Química Estrutural, Institute of Molecular Sciences, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: analytical chemistry; sample preparation; microextraction techniques; chromatography; hyphenated techniques (GC-MS and LC-MS); environmental analysis; biological analysis, forensic analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Globalization has dramatically changed the global criminal landscape. Today, national and transnational crime make forensic investigations even more complex. This is especially true in forensic chemistry, where the appearance of new psychoactive substances on the market almost every week, the occurrence of unlawful discharges of multicompounds into the environment, food adulteration and contamination, the use of more complex explosives and precursors, and, at the same time, acknowledgement of the benefits as well as the restraints of laboratory certification and accreditation make the work of forensic analysts in chemistry even more challenging.

This Special Issue of Molecules welcomes original research articles, communications, and review articles dealing with research on the topics discussed above, as well as in all other fields in chemistry applied to solving forensic issues, including drug analysis, safe consumption, suspected documents, ink profiling and aging, accelerant analysis, explosives, latent fingerprint revelation, thanatochemistry, wastewater-based epidemiology, and forensic chemometrics. We are certain that this Issuer will serve as an excellent forum for providing and discussing recent developments in the field.

Dr. Alexandre Quintas
Dr. Nuno Neng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • new psychoactive substances
  • drugs of abuse
  • toxicology
  • pollution
  • explosives
  • inks
  • documents
  • fingerprinting
  • chemometrics
  • accreditation

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 5510 KiB  
Article
Classification of Mass Spectral Data to Assist in the Identification of Novel Synthetic Cannabinoids
by Kristopher C. Evans-Newman, Garion L. Schneider and Nuwan T. Perera
Molecules 2024, 29(19), 4646; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29194646 - 30 Sep 2024
Viewed by 648
Abstract
Detection and characterization of newly synthesized cannabinoids (NSCs) is challenging due to the lack of availability of reference standards and chemical data. In this study, a binary classification system was developed and validated using partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) by utilizing readily [...] Read more.
Detection and characterization of newly synthesized cannabinoids (NSCs) is challenging due to the lack of availability of reference standards and chemical data. In this study, a binary classification system was developed and validated using partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) by utilizing readily available mass spectral data of known drugs to assist in the identification of previously unknown NCSs. First, a binary classification model was developed to discriminate cannabinoids and cannabinoid-related compounds from other drug classes. Then, a classification model was developed to discriminate classical (THC-related) from synthetic cannabinoids. Additional models were developed based on the most abundant functional groups including core groups such as indole, indazole, azaindole, and naphthoylpyrrole, as well as head and tail groups including 4-fluorobenzyl (FUB) and 5-Fluoropentyl (5-F). The predictive ability of these models was tested via both cross-validation and external validation. The results show that all models developed are highly accurate. Additionally, latent variables (LVs) of each model provide useful mass to charge (m/z) for discrimination between classes, which further facilitates the identification of different functional groups of previously unknown drug molecules. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forensic Analysis in Chemistry, 2nd Edition)
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11 pages, 1076 KiB  
Article
Non-Destructive Identification of Dyes on Fabric Using Near-Infrared Raman Spectroscopy
by Mackenzi Peterson and Dmitry Kurouski
Molecules 2023, 28(23), 7864; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28237864 - 30 Nov 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1261
Abstract
Fabric is a commonly found piece of physical evidence at most crime scenes. Forensic analysis of fabric is typically performed via microscopic examination. This subjective approach is primarily based on pattern recognition and, therefore, is often inconclusive. Most of the fabric material found [...] Read more.
Fabric is a commonly found piece of physical evidence at most crime scenes. Forensic analysis of fabric is typically performed via microscopic examination. This subjective approach is primarily based on pattern recognition and, therefore, is often inconclusive. Most of the fabric material found at crime scenes is colored. One may expect that a confirmatory identification of dyes can be used to enhance the reliability of the forensic analysis of fabric. In this study, we investigated the potential of near-infrared Raman spectroscopy (NIRS) in the confirmatory, non-invasive, and non-destructive identification of 15 different dyes on cotton. We found that NIRS was able to resolve the vibrational fingerprints of all 15 colorants. Using partial-squared discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), we showed that NIRS enabled ~100% accurate identification of dyes based on their vibrational signatures. These findings open a new avenue for the robust and reliable forensic analysis of dyes on fabric directly at crime scenes. Main conclusion: a hand-held Raman spectrometer and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) approaches enable highly accurate identification of dyes on fabric. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forensic Analysis in Chemistry, 2nd Edition)
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