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Forensic Chemistry
When evidence is brought back at the crime lab like suspicious material, DNA, or leftover accelerants in arson cases, CSI techs have a closer look using methods derived from forensic chemistryImage may be NSFW.
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. The hit CSI Television series actually portray an almost accurate practice of the procedures they use in real-life crime labs. Basically, when suspicious compounds are recovered and brought to a crime lab, a few scientific procedures are strictly followed. These procedures include gas chromatography, mass spectroscopy and lastly, a procedure called infrared spectrophotometry.
Gas chromatography is used to separate a compound mixture into its individual parts. It does this by identifying the compound and how far its parts can move through the inert and noble gases. Using forensic chemistry techniques, Mass spectroscopy is used to develop the chemical buildup of a substance. This is highly effective since substances with exactly the same chemical buildup do not exist. These two methods can actually work in unison using a combination called gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer by which the GC part forces the gaseous substance into a mass spectroscope apparatus that can verify the mass spectrum of the substance in question. This combination can identify just about any substance existing today. The last technique called infrared spectrophotometry can determine the results of a chemical fingerprint analysis by keeping track of the amount of infrared light existing or absorbed in the suspicious compound. With forensic science skills, all substances are tagged and identified by its parts.
Since the exact origin or manufacturer of the compound in question is not easily determined even with advances in forensic chemistry, tracing a mysterious sample to its origin (like hardware stores or gas stations) must require comparisons between the suspicious compound and others taken from suspected origins. Although this kind of analysis is not entirely accurate, the purpose is to find possible sources that investigators will then focus on.
