Towards chemical profiling of ignitable liquids with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography: Exploring forensic application to neat white spirits.
The application of GC×GC-FID and GC×GC-MS for the chemical analysis and profiling of neat white spirit is explored and the benefit of the enhanced peak capacity offered by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography is demonstrated. An extensive sampling exercise was conducted throughout The Netherlands and the production and logistics in terms of bottling and distribution of white spirits were studied. An exploratory approach based on target-peak tables and principal component analysis was employed to study the brand-to-brand differences and production variations over time. Despite the complex chemical composition of white spirit samples this study shows that chemical variation during productions is actually quite limited. Hence care has to be taken with the chemical comparison for forensic purposes. Although some clustering was noticed on brand level, the large scale production process leads to a very consistent composition across stores and brands. However, because of the broad specifications of this commodity product, substantial chemical variation was found over time. This temporal discrimination could be of forensic value when considering white spirits supplies in individual households.
van⿿t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: a.a.s.sampat@uva.nl.
Andjoe A S
AAS
Sampat
Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94248, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Netherlands Forensic Institute, P.O. Box 24044, 2490 AA The Hague, The Netherlands.
Martin
M
Lopatka
van⿿t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Gabriel
G
Vivó-Truyols
van⿿t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Peter J
PJ
Schoenmakers
van⿿t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Netherlands Forensic Institute, P.O. Box 24044, 2490 AA The Hague, The Netherlands; CLHC, Amsterdam Center for Forensic Science and Medicine, P.O. Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Arian C
AC
van Asten
Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography; Forensic chemical profiling; Forensic fire investigation; GC×GC; Ignitable liquids; White spirit