Differentiation of Unevaporated Gasoline Samples According to Their Brands, by SPME�GC�MS and Multivariate Statistical Analysis

• Autores: Maria Monfreda, Adolfo Gregori
• Localización: Journal of forensic sciences, ISSN-e 1556-4029, ISSN 0022-1198, Vol. 56, Nº. 2, 2011, págs. 372-380
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Keywords:forensic science;gasoline;arson;fire debris;solid-phase microextraction;gas chromatography�mass spectrometry;multivariate statistical analysis;principal component analysis Abstract: One of the aims of fire investigations is to identify associations among accelerants according to their source. In this study, 50 gasoline samples�representing five brands�were analyzed using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography�mass spectrometry (GC�MS). Chemometric procedures, such as principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA), were applied to a data matrix obtained by the target compound chromatogram method, to discriminate samples according to their brand. PCA was successful in finding a natural grouping of samples according to their brand, suggesting that aromatic compounds were more useful than aliphatics for the purpose of this study. DA, if applied to aromatic compounds, gave both a classification ability and a prediction ability of 100%. The outstanding results obtained by this work provide the basis of a data matrix that could be used in real cases of arson to link a sample of unevaporated gasoline to its brand or refinery.