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Dual Fingerprint Reagents with Enhanced Sensitivity: 5‐Methoxy‐ and 5‐Methylthioninhydrin
Author(s) -
Almog Joseph,
Klein Asne,
Davidi Inbal,
Cohen Yaron,
Azoury Myriam,
LevinElad Michal
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00671.x
Subject(s) - ninhydrin , reagent , chemistry , fingerprint (computing) , fluorescence , zinc , chromatography , cadmium , dual mode , inorganic chemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , computer science , amino acid , computer security , physics , engineering , aerospace engineering , quantum mechanics
Abstract: “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.