Busnel, J.-M.

Bécue, A.

Champod, C.

Cortés-Salazar, F.

Girault, H.

Prudent, M.

Zhang, M.

Cortes-Salazar, Fernando

Zhang, Meiqin

Becue, Andy

Busnel, Jean-Marc

Prudent, Michel

Champod, Christophe

Girault, Hubert H.

CHIMIA

Human Fingerprint Imaging by Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy (SECM): Highlights of Analytical Chemistry in Switzerland

Serveur académique lausannois

580 CHIMIA 2009, 63, No. 9 Columns Highlights of Analytical Chemistry in Switzerland Division of Analytical ChemistryA Division of the Swiss Chemical SocietyCan you show us your analytical highlight? Please contact: Dr. Veronika R. Meyer, EMPA St.Gallen, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St.Gallen  Phone: 071 274 77 87, Fax: 071 274 77 88, Mail to: veronika.meyer@empa.chdoi:10.2533/chimia.2009.580 Human Fingerprint Imaging by Scanning Electro-Chemical Microscopy (SECM)Fernando Cortes-Salazara, Meiqin Zhanga, Andy Becueb, Jean-Marc Busnela, Michel Prudenta, Christophe Cham-podb, and Hubert H. Girault*a*Correspondence: Dr. H. H. Girault, Tel.: +41 21 693 31 45, Fax: +41 21 693 36 67, E-mail: hubert.girault@epfl.chaLaboratoire d’Electrochimie Physique et Analytique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 6, CH-1015 LausannebInstitut de Police Scientifique, Ecole des sciences criminelles, Université de Laus-anne, Batochime, CH-1015 LausanneKeywords: Fingerprint imaging · Forensic science · Latent fingermarks · Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy Fingerprints constitute a valuable tool for human identification because of their permanence and extreme discriminating power. The latter is thanks to the fact that fingerprints are characterized by a unique combination of specific features like the flow of the ridges (i.e. overall pattern), the ridge path deviations (e.g. ridge endings, bifurcations), and finally the intrinsic ridge characteris-tics (e.g. ridge shape, pores). As a consequence, forensic scientists have used fingerprint analysis for identification purposes for more than a hundred years. Human identity verification is obtained by the comparison of a fingermark found at a crime scene with the fingerprints collected on a suspect, or stored in a database. There-fore, the quality of the obtained image when imaging fingermarks is a major issue. Indeed, most of the time, marks left on touched objects and surfaces are not visible to the naked eye (i.e. latent fin-germarks). This is due to the fact that they are composed of a mix of organic and inorganic compounds in small quantities which are deposited on the surfaces when touched by bare hands. During the last decades, the development of new techniques for fingerprint de-tection has been extensively pursued, since traditional methods of fingerprint detection may be unable to provide high quality images when dealing with not ordinary surfaces (e.g. multicoloured back-grounds, contamination with body fluids or other components, and porous surfaces).Recently, it has been shown that visualization of latent fin-germarks can be enhanced by using Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy (SECM) combined with silver-staining (left side of the Fig.), benzoquinone tagging (right side of the Fig.) or multi-metal-deposition technology. In the first two cases the protocol is based on the staining of latent fingerprints by silver salts or benzo-quinone, whereas in the latter case the latent fingerprint is coated first with gold nanoparticles that are then coated with silver by electroless deposition, allowing the fingerprint detection by the same principle showed on the left side of the Fig. SECM provides the forensic scientist a new tool for the visualization of human fingerprints on unusual surfaces. In addition, fingerprint images are obtained with such a high resolution and sensitivity that information on pore shape and position can be easily obtained to be used for the identification process.Received: June 25, 2009ReferencesM. Zhang, H. H. Girault, Electrochem. Comm. 2007, 9, 1778.M. Zhang, A. Becue, M. Prudent, C. Champod, H. H. Girault, Chem. Comm. 2007, 38, 3948.M. Zhang, H. H. Girault, Analyst. 2009, 134, 25.F. Cortes-Salazar, J. M. Busnel, F. Li, H. H. Girault, J. Electroanal. Chem., 2009, accepted.Top: Constant height SECM images of a fingerprint developed by silver staining (left) or benzoquinone tagging (right). Bottom: Schematic representation of the detection principle of silver nanoparticles containing fingerprints (left) and benzoquinone-tagged fingerprints (right).

Human Fingerprint Imaging by Scanning Electro-Chemical Microscopy (Secm)

Girault Hubert, H.

Human Fingerprint Imaging by Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy (SECM) : Human Fingerprint Imaging by Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy (SECM)

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Human Fingerprint Imaging by Scanning Electro-Chemical Microscopy (Secm)

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