Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 20 No 2 (2016): 224 - 230

 

 

 

Fast and Simple Forensic Red Pen Ink Analysis using Ultra-performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC)

 

(Analisis Forensik Cepat dan Mudah bagi Dakwat Pen Merah menggunakan Kromatografi Cecair Berprestasi Ultra)

 

Loong Chuen Lee*, Seow Lay Ying, Wan Nur Syazwani Wan Mohamad Fuad, Ab Aziz Ishak, Khairul Osman

 

Forensic Science Program, School of Diagnostic & Applied Health Sciences,

Faculty of Health Sciences,

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

*Corresponding author: lc_lee@ukm.edu.my

 

 

Received: 28 December 2015; Accepted: 7 March 2016

 

 

Abstract

Ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) is more effective than high performance liquid chromatography in terms of analysis speed and sensitivity. This paper presents a feasibility study on forensic red pen inks analysis using UPLC. A total of 12 varieties of red ballpoint pen inks were purchased from selected stationary shop. For each variety, four different individual pens were sampled to provide intra-variability within a particular variety of pen. The proposed approach is very simple that it only involved limited analysis step and chemicals.  A total of 144 chromatograms were obtained from red ink entries extracted with 1.5 mL 80 % (v/v) acetonitrile. Peaks originated from pen inks were determined by comparing the chromatograms of both blank paper and blank solvent against that of ink samples. Subsequently, one-way ANOVA was conducted to discriminate all 66 possible pairs for red pen inks. Results showed that the proposed approach giving discriminating power of 95.45 %. The outcome of the study indicates that UPLC could be a fast and simple approach to red ballpoint pen inks analysis. 

 

Keywords:  forensic ink analysis, ballpoint pen inks, ultra-performance liquid chromatography

 

Abstrak

Kromatografi cecair berprestasi Ultra (UPLC) adalah lebih berkesan dari kromatografi cecair berprestasi tinggi dari segi kelajuan analisis dan kepekaan. Kertas ini mempersembahkan kajian kebolehlaksanaan pada analisis dakwat pen merah menggunakan UPLC. Sebanyak 12 jenis dakwat pen mata bulat merah dibeli dari kedai alat tulis yang terpilih. Untuk setiap jenis, empat batang pen telah disampel untuk memberi maklumat tentang intra-variasi bagi suatu jenis pen. Pendekatan yang dicadangkan adalah mudah kerana ia hanya melibatkan langkah analisis dan bahan kimia yang terhad. Sejumlah 144 kromatogram telah diperolehi dari dakwat tulisan merah yang diekstrak dengan 1.5 mL 80 % (v/v) asetonitril. Puncak yang berasal dari dakwat pen ditentukan melalui perbandingan antara kromatogram kertas kosong dan pelarut kosong dengan yang diperolehi dari sampel dakwat. Seterusnya, ujian ANOVA sehala telah dijalankan untuk membezalayan kesemua 66 pasangan dakwat pen merah yang terbentuk. Keputusan menunjukkan pendekatan yang dicadangkan memberi 95.45 % kuasa pembezalayan. Hasil kajian ini menunjukkan UPLC dapat dijadikan satu pendekatan yang cepat dan mudah untuk analisis dakwat pen mata bulat merah. 

 

Kata kunci:  analisis dakwat forensik, dakwat pen mata bulat, kromatografi cecair prestasi ultra

 

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