Confirmed Speaker
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Dr. Valerio Causin
Mass spectrometry applications in polymeric trace evidence characterisation
Valerio Causin
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Padova, via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova. Email: valerio.causin@unipd.it
In his daily casework, a forensic scientist confronts himself with traces, which are the remnants of an activity and as such they contain the most basic ‘material or physical’ information on a crime.
The ubiquity of polymeric materials in everyday life make polymeric traces items very probably found on a crime scene. The most common include textile fibres that are shed during a struggle, paint chips transferred or reflectors broken in a car accident, or adhesive tape that is often used in kidnappings, bomb manufacturing, robberies or concealing of dead bodies. However, the array of possible polymeric materials that a forensic scientist could be called to deal with is very vast, and goes from latex gloves, to bits of polyurethane foam, from resins contained in inks to lubricants in condoms.
Polymers are peculiars chemicals and much information is contained within their complexity and heterogeneity [1]. Synthesis and manufacturing processes modify the material on the molecular scale, tuning its microstructure, solid state structure, morphology and physical-mechanical properties.
Practically no plastic object is made of 100% polymer. Most polymers in fact do not possess adequate aesthetical and/or functional properties to fit common end uses, so additives are extensively used in industrial practice.
Among the many analytical techniques in the forensic toolbox, mass spectrometry is probably one of the most underutilised in the characterisation of polymeric items. In this communication, the strengths and the limitations of mass spectrometry in this field will be discussed, with a particular focus on the elucidation of the formulation of the item and of the molecular weight of its matrix.
References
​[1] Causin V., Polymers on the Crime Scene – Forensic Analysis of Polymeric Trace Evidence. Springer: New York (2015).
Born in 1975, Valerio Causin received a Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences at the University of Padova in 2004. From 2001 to 2003, he was First Lieutenant at the Chemistry, Explosives, and Flammables section of the Forensic Branch of Carabinieri in Rome. He currently is associate professor of Industrial Chemistry at the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Padova. His research interests are focused on the application of polymer characterization techniques to forensic sciences in collaboration with Carabinieri in Rome, Messina, and Verona. He served as a forensic consultant for the Court, for the Prosecutor, and for the Defense in over 100 civil and criminal cases. In 2009, he was awarded the AIM prize for young researchers in polymer science, and in 2015 he received the POLYCHAR International Materials Research Prize. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of POLYCHAR World Forum on Advanced Materials. An author of 81 papers in international journals, he was invited as a keynote speaker at a number of international conferences and in universities and research centres worldwide.
Forensic Mass Spectrometry
The aims of Forensic Mass Spectrometry Verona 2016, are to exchange scientific and technical information and to promote research, improve practice, and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration among the different areas of forensic science (forensic pathology, toxicology, genetics, criminalistics etc) based on the most advanced analytical technology.​