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Chemical Analysis of Gunpowder and Gunshot Residues

The identification of firearms is of paramount importance for investigating crimes involving firearms, as it establishes the link between a particular firearm and firearm-related elements found at a crime scene, such as projectiles and cartridge cases. This identification relies on the visual compar...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Serol, Miguel, Ahmad, Samir Marcos, Quintas, Alexandre, Família, Carlos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10386329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37513421
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28145550
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author Serol, Miguel
Ahmad, Samir Marcos
Quintas, Alexandre
Família, Carlos
author_facet Serol, Miguel
Ahmad, Samir Marcos
Quintas, Alexandre
Família, Carlos
author_sort Serol, Miguel
collection PubMed
description The identification of firearms is of paramount importance for investigating crimes involving firearms, as it establishes the link between a particular firearm and firearm-related elements found at a crime scene, such as projectiles and cartridge cases. This identification relies on the visual comparison of such elements against reference samples from suspect firearms or those existing in databases. Whenever this approach is not possible, the chemical analysis of the gunpowder and gunshot residue can provide additional information that may assist in establishing a link between samples retrieved at a crime scene and those from a suspect or in the identification of the corresponding model and manufacturer of the ammunition used. The most commonly used method for the chemical analysis of gunshot residue is scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray, which focuses on the inorganic elements present in ammunition formulation, particularly heavy metals. However, a change in the legal paradigm is pushing changes in these formulations to remove heavy metals due to their potential for environmental contamination and the health hazards they represent. For this reason, the importance of the analysis of organic compounds is leading to the adoption of a different set of analytical methodologies, mostly based on spectroscopy and chromatography. This manuscript reviews the constitution of primer and gunpowder formulations and the analytical methods currently used for detecting, characterising, and identifying their compounds. In addition, this contribution also explores how the information provided by these methodologies can be used in ammunition identification and how it is driving the development of novel applications within forensic ballistics.
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spelling pubmed-103863292023-07-30 Chemical Analysis of Gunpowder and Gunshot Residues Serol, Miguel Ahmad, Samir Marcos Quintas, Alexandre Família, Carlos Molecules Review The identification of firearms is of paramount importance for investigating crimes involving firearms, as it establishes the link between a particular firearm and firearm-related elements found at a crime scene, such as projectiles and cartridge cases. This identification relies on the visual comparison of such elements against reference samples from suspect firearms or those existing in databases. Whenever this approach is not possible, the chemical analysis of the gunpowder and gunshot residue can provide additional information that may assist in establishing a link between samples retrieved at a crime scene and those from a suspect or in the identification of the corresponding model and manufacturer of the ammunition used. The most commonly used method for the chemical analysis of gunshot residue is scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray, which focuses on the inorganic elements present in ammunition formulation, particularly heavy metals. However, a change in the legal paradigm is pushing changes in these formulations to remove heavy metals due to their potential for environmental contamination and the health hazards they represent. For this reason, the importance of the analysis of organic compounds is leading to the adoption of a different set of analytical methodologies, mostly based on spectroscopy and chromatography. This manuscript reviews the constitution of primer and gunpowder formulations and the analytical methods currently used for detecting, characterising, and identifying their compounds. In addition, this contribution also explores how the information provided by these methodologies can be used in ammunition identification and how it is driving the development of novel applications within forensic ballistics. MDPI 2023-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10386329/ /pubmed/37513421 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28145550 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Serol, Miguel
Ahmad, Samir Marcos
Quintas, Alexandre
Família, Carlos
Chemical Analysis of Gunpowder and Gunshot Residues
title Chemical Analysis of Gunpowder and Gunshot Residues
title_full Chemical Analysis of Gunpowder and Gunshot Residues
title_fullStr Chemical Analysis of Gunpowder and Gunshot Residues
title_full_unstemmed Chemical Analysis of Gunpowder and Gunshot Residues
title_short Chemical Analysis of Gunpowder and Gunshot Residues
title_sort chemical analysis of gunpowder and gunshot residues
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10386329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37513421
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28145550
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