Fingermarks development on gloves: Relative efficiency of 1,2 Indanedione/ZnCl₂, ninhydrin and wet powder

Powder suspensions such as wet powder are used to develop fingermarks on adhesive surfaces. They can also be used on gloves but these ready-to-use commercial pre-mixed solutions are not entirely satisfactory. Among other things, they generate some background noise that can sometimes be substantial and make the exploitation of the fingermarks difficult. Recent studies have proven the effectiveness of a HFE ninhydrin solution on some types of gloves. Ninhydrin and 1,2-indanedione are reagents that are commonly used for the visualisation of fingermarks on porous and semi-porous substrates. Applying them on gloves might help to overcome the issue of background noise being produced by powder suspensions. In this study, several formulations of ninhydrin and 1,2-indanedione are compared to wet powder on a sample of nitrile, latex and vinyl gloves. The subsequent results show a greater effectiveness with the use of wet powder.