Modified powder suspensions for fingermark detection on adhesive tapes in austere or contested environments

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ABSTRACT

Pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes may be associated with a wide range of criminal and terrorist activity as physical evidence. In this study, a carbon powder suspension formulation for the detection of latent fingermarks on the adhesive side of tapes was modified by using consumer products as alternative surfactant sources. The modified formulations were used to successfully develop latent fingermarks deposited on transparent adhesive tape. This project ultimately intends to establish the performance windows of the modified techniques to allow evidence-based decision-making during technical exploitation in contested and austere environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Military forensics
• counterterrorism
• pressure-sensitive adhesive tape
• sustainable development
• frugal forensics
• fingermark detection

Acknowledgments

This study has been approved by Curtin Human Ethics Committee Approval HRE2023-0429 and is supported by the DSC (Defence Science Centre) Research Higher Degree Student grant for RB.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Defence Science Centre.