Enhancing Blood Fingerprints with Multicolored Conjugated Polymers: A Fluorescent Strategy with Python-Based...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Forensic Science
• Polymer Chemistry

Background:

• Fluorescent conjugated polymers offer stability, biocompatibility, and tunable conductivity for advanced materials.
• These polymers are valuable in fabricating multifunctional materials due to their processability and optical properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize novel fluorescent conjugated polymers for blood fingerprint enhancement.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of these polymers in visualizing latent and visible blood fingerprints on non-porous substrates.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis and characterization of three fluorescent conjugated polymers: PF-SO10 (blue), PF-SO10-BT1 (green), and PF-SO10-DTBT1 (red).
• Application of these polymers via powder dusting for blood fingerprint development.
• Visualization under 365 nm irradiation.
• Comparative analysis with conventional reagents like Amido Black 10B and TMB.
• Development of a Python-based quantitative evaluation framework.

Main Results:

• Developed fingerprints exhibited strong fluorescence under 365 nm irradiation, revealing third-level details on six non-porous substrates.
• The novel polymer method outperformed conventional reagents in fingerprint visualization.
• The Python framework provided quantitative metrics for objective assessment.

Conclusions:

• The fluorescent conjugated polymers provide a promising, low-cost, high-contrast, and selective method for blood fingerprint detection.
• This approach minimizes background interference, offering reliable visualization for forensic applications.
• The quantitative evaluation framework enhances objectivity in analyzing fingerprint quality.