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Identification of
Ignitable Liquid 5

Residues in Fire Debris
by GC/MS/MS

DALE SUTHERLAND
JEANNETTE PERR
JOSÉ R. ALMIRALL

Two different approaches to forensic analysis of accelerants in fire debris by
GC/MS/MS are described in this chapter. One method is to optimize MS/MS
parameters and conditions for a series of target compounds in order to obtain
maximum sensitivity and specificity for ignitable liquids. A specific com-
pound of interest is isolated by selecting a parent ion, which is passed through
the MS/MS collision chamber, to be decomposed by collision-induced dis-
sociation (CID), followed by analysis of the daughter ions for compound
identification. This is being discussed as an optimized target compound
GC/MS/MS analysis.
The other approach is to select parent ions characteristic of several chem-
ical classes in order to optimize the selectivity of the GC/MS/MS analysis
through class pattern recognition. MS/MS is being used to “clean up” the
GC/MS chromatogram, followed by comparison of the profile of the inves-
tigated analyte with profiles of standards. This is being discussed as target
class GC/MS/MS analysis.

Contents
5.1 The Use of Compound-Specific MS/MS for the Identification of
Ignitable Liquid Residues in Fire Debris Analysis
5.1.1 Introduction
5.1.2 Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS)
5.1.3 Fire Debris Analysis
5.1.3.1 Ion Trap MS/MS in Fire Debris Analysis
5.1.3.2 MS/MS Examples
5.1.4 Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References

© 2004 by CRC Press LLC