Dual fingerprint reagents with enhanced sensitivity: 5-methoxy- and 5-methylthioninhydrin.
"Dual fingerprint reagents" are chemical formulations which produce with latent fingerprints in a single step, impressions that are both colored and fluorescent. Pre-mixed solutions of the two commercially available ninhydrin analogues, 5-methoxyninhydrin (MN) and 5-methylthioninhydrin (MTN) with zinc or cadmium salts, are true dual reagents. They are much more sensitive than the parent dual reagent, ninhydrin/ZnCl(2). The main advantage of the new formulations is that they can be used at room temperature, with no need to cool the sample to liquid nitrogen temperature. At 0.05% concentration, which is 10-fold lower than the common ninhydrin working solution, MTN/ZnCl(2) is as sensitive as DFO in the fluorescence mode and considerably more sensitive in the color mode. MTN is also slightly cheaper than DFO.
Almog
Joseph
J
Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. almog@vms.huji.ac.il
Klein
Asne
A
Davidi
Inbal
I
Cohen
Yaron
Y
Azoury
Myriam
M
Levin-Elad
Michal
M
D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D003878:Dermatoglyphics; D005453:Fluorescence; D006801:Humans; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009555:Ninhydrin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry*; D013048:Specimen Handling; D013696:Temperature; D017967:Zinc Compounds
D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D017967:Zinc Compounds; D009555:Ninhydrin