Nanostructured silicon-based fingerprint dusting powders for enhanced visualization and detection by mass spectrometry

Porous silicon microparticles (pSi MPs) functionalized with fluorescent dyes (lissamine and carboxy-5-fluorescein) and intrinsically luminescent pSi MPs were explored as novel fingerprint dusting powders. The versatility of luminescent pSi MPs is demonstrated through time-gated imaging of their long-lived (lifetime>28 μs) near-IR emission, and mass spectrometry analysis of fingerprints dusted with luminescent pSi MPs to provide further information on exogenous small molecules present in latent fingerprints. To catch a thief: In research on forensic methods novel nanostructured silicon microparticles with long luminescence decay times and near-IR emission were used as fingerprint dusting powders (see figure).