TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of environmentally insulted fingermarks on nonporous forensically relevant substrates with conformal columnar thin films
AU - Nagachar, Nivedita
AU - Tiedge, Teresa M.
AU - Lakhtakia, Akhlesh
AU - McCormick, Mallory Nicole
AU - Roy, Reena
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported by Award No. 2016-DN-BX-0153, awarded by the US National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice. The authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for comments that led to improved presentation of their research. Thanks are due to Craig F. Bohren and William J. Syrett for meteorological advice and to Carlo A. Pantano for Ge28Sb12Se60 chalcogenide glass. AL thanks the Charles Godfrey Binder Endowment at Penn State for ongoing support of his research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Canadian Society of Forensic Science.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - A systematic study was undertaken on the influence of environmental insult on the efficacy of developing a latent fingermark on a nonporous substrate by the deposition of a conformal nanoscale columnar thin film (CTF) on it. Four warm-weather and one cold-weather environmental conditions were chosen as representative for Pennsylvania. Three durations of environmental insult were selected: a day, seven days, and 30 days. Fingermarks were collected from one male donor and one female donor on five different types of substrates. The evaporant material for the deposition of a CTF on a specific fingermark sample was specifically chosen based on a prior study. Photographs of every fingermark were graded for quality after collection, after enduring the chosen environmental insult for a particular duration, and after CTF development. The results of the study on 750 fingermark samples indicate that environmental insult does not always degrade and can even improve the quality of fingermarks, and CTF deposition thereafter may considerably enhance the insulted fingermarks for visualization.
AB - A systematic study was undertaken on the influence of environmental insult on the efficacy of developing a latent fingermark on a nonporous substrate by the deposition of a conformal nanoscale columnar thin film (CTF) on it. Four warm-weather and one cold-weather environmental conditions were chosen as representative for Pennsylvania. Three durations of environmental insult were selected: a day, seven days, and 30 days. Fingermarks were collected from one male donor and one female donor on five different types of substrates. The evaporant material for the deposition of a CTF on a specific fingermark sample was specifically chosen based on a prior study. Photographs of every fingermark were graded for quality after collection, after enduring the chosen environmental insult for a particular duration, and after CTF development. The results of the study on 750 fingermark samples indicate that environmental insult does not always degrade and can even improve the quality of fingermarks, and CTF deposition thereafter may considerably enhance the insulted fingermarks for visualization.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089457652&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85089457652&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00085030.2020.1799658
DO - 10.1080/00085030.2020.1799658
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089457652
VL - 53
SP - 149
EP - 172
JO - Journal of the Canadian Society of Forensic Science
JF - Journal of the Canadian Society of Forensic Science
SN - 0008-5030
IS - 4
ER -