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Journal of Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology

Volume  6, Issue 1, January-June 2020, Pages 11-36
 

Original Article

Gas Chromatography-Headspace (GC-HS) and its significance in Forensic Toxicology

Supriya Krishna, A. K. Jaiswal, Tisha Rosina Thomas, Millo Tabin, S. K. Gupta

1 Senior Scientific Assistant, 3 Student, Chemistry Division, LNJN National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, Rohini, Delhi, 2 Chemist, 4,5 Professor, and Head of Department, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21088/jfct.2454.9363.5219.2

Abstract

Gas Chromatography (GC or GLC) is a commonly used analytic technique in any analytical laboratory for quality control as well as identification and quantitation of compounds in a mixture. High sensitivity, selectivity, resolution, speed, good accuracy and precision, wide dynamic concentration range, simple, economic and robust instrument design, and its ability to be interfaced with many established and emerging sampling and detection systems have made GC the instrument of choice in Forensic Science. A broad variety of organic samples can be separated and analysed as long as the compounds are sufficiently thermally stable and reasonably volatile. Gas chromatography can be used for the separation of gases, liquids and solids. Materials such as biological materials (tissues, blood, urine, etc), alcohol, fire debris, car paints, drugs, pesticides, plant material and fibres are the most common evidential materials analysed by forensic chemists/scientists and are characterized by a high degree of complexity. One of the major challenges is to ensure that the sample injected is truly the representative sample of the extract. Therefore, improvement in injection and sampling handling techniques has always been necessity. Inclusion of Headspace (HS) as a sample injection technique has improved and reduced the sampling error and sample loss during preparation. Headspace analysis is based on the principle that volatile components in avial, maintained at equilibrium, diffuse into the gas phase above the sample which is then extracted and introduced into the GC system for analysis. This ensures that the sample is the true representation of the test sample. In HS, sample injection volume can range anywhere between few µl to 1000µl. Some recent applications of GC-HS in Forensic Chemistry, including those in Forensic Toxicology, are presented in the article, which include alcohol estimation in drunken driving cases, estimation of drugs seized in bulk form, illicit drugs, estimation of pesticides in biological matrix and post-mortem volatiles in stored samples.

 


Keywords : Gas Chromatography Headspace; Applications; GC-HS; Forensic Toxicology etc.
Corresponding Author : A.K. Jaiswal