Copper determination in gunshot residue by cyclic voltammetric and inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy

Abstract

Analysis of gunshot residue (GSR) is a crucial evidences for a forensic analyst in the fastest way. GSR analysis insists a suitable method provides a relatively simple, rapid and precise information on the spot at the crime scene. Therefore, the analysis of Cu(II) in GSR using cyclic voltammetry (CV) on screen printed carbon electrode (SPCE) is a better choice compared to previous alternative methods such as Inductive Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) those required a long time for analysis. SPCE is specially designed to handle with microvolumes of sample such as GSR sample. It gives advantages for identification of copper in GSR on-site preliminary test to prevent the sample loss on the process to be analyzed in the laboratory. SPCE was swabbed directly on the shooter's arm immediately after firing and acetate buffer was dropped on SPCE before CV analysis. For ICP-OES analysis, cotton that had been soaked in 0.5 M nitric acid was swabbed on the shooter's arm immediately after firing and kept in a tightly closed sampling tube. Gold coated SPCE that had been through nanoparticles modification exhibits excellent performance on voltammograms. The calibration was linear from 1 to 50 ppm of copper, the limit of detection for copper was 0.3 ppm and a relative standard deviation was 6.1 %. The method was successfully applied to the determination of copper in GSR. The Cu determination on SPCE was compared and validated by ICP-OES method with 94 % accuracy.