Problems of Forensic Sciences 2014 Vol. 97 (XCVII) 14-22
FEASIBILITY OF HIGH PERFORMANCE THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR THE FORENSIC ANALYSIS OF RED BALLPOINT PEN INKS
Loong Chuen LEE, Eng Leng LEE, Ab Aziz ISHAK
Faculty of Health Science, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Streszczenie
The counterfeiting of documents written with a ballpoint pen is a common phenomenon in the modern world. The aim of the presented study was to investigate the feasibility of applying high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) to the forensic analysis of red ballpoint pen inks. Inks were extracted from writings on white office paper using methanol. The separation was performed using a solvent mixture of ethyl acetate, methanol and distilled water (70:35:30, v/v/v) as the mobile phase. The writing inks were first classified according to their main dye component. Differentiation was then attempted by taking other minor dyes into account. The results showed that the ink samples could be divided into three groups, even though similarities between the chromatograms were very high. The greatest diversity of chromatogram profiles was revealed for ink entries written using pens of different brands. The results showed that HPTLC could be an effective and reliable tool for characterizing and identifying red ballpoint pen inks.
Słowa kluczowe
High performance thin layer chromatography; Forensic ink analysis; Discrimination power; Questioned documents; Red ballpoint pen inks.