Chemical Communications Blog

Criminal investigations may benefit from new forensic methods based on nanoparticles. A technique using gold nanoparticles in combination with antibodies has shown promising results for enhancing fingerprints that are over a week old.

Fingerprinting, first reported in the 19th century, is still the primary source of evidence used in crime scene investigation and new methods for improving fingerprint visualisation remain in demand. Unseen (latent) fingerprints can be revealed using chemical treatments that target molecules likely to be deposited in fingerprints, such as those in hair follicle secretions.

Xanthe Spindler at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia and colleagues now report a technique that targets amino acids – present ubiquitously in sweat and thus in most fingerprints. They linked amino acid-binding antibodies to gold nanoparticles and applied them to fingerprints. To develop and image the prints, they used red fluorescent secondary antibodies that would stick to the nanoparticle-bound antibodies.

 Read the full news story in Chemistry World and Spindler’s ChemComm communication to find out more.