Page 5 - Advances in Forensic Applications of Mass Spectrometry - Jehuda Yinon

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odology, the instrumentation, and several forensic applications, including
origin identification of drugs and explosives and isotope tagging.
For many years, GC/MS has been the major method used for identifica-
tion of accelerants in fire debris. MS/MS now provides an additional dimen-
sion of identification. GC/MS/MS has the capability to isolate and identify
ignitable liquid residues in the presence of background products such as
pyrolysates that may mask the target analytes of interest. A chapter devoted
to this subject consists of two subchapters written by two different authors
who are using GC/MS/MS with a different approach for the identification of
accelerants in fire debris.
LC/MS, with electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure
chemical ionization (APCI), are now being used for the analysis of explosives
in postblast residues. This chapter describes both ionization techniques and
their application in explosive residue analysis.
The mass spectrometer in its various configurations is now an integral
part of every forensic laboratory. The number of possible forensic applica-
tions of this analytical technique is limited only by the imagination of the
forensic chemist.
Finally, I would like to thank the contributing authors who have made
the publication of this book possible. Many thanks are due to authors and
publishers for permission to reproduce copyrighted material.

— Jehuda Yinon

© 2004 by CRC Press LLC