EXP-SA: Method Development for Stable Isotope Characterization of High Explosives

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

0730456 Jahren This work will develop inter-laboratory standards and improved methods for high-precision mass spectroscopy and related techniques to aid forensic examination of post-explosion residues. This project will help overcome two fundamental barriers in the stable isotope forensics of high explosives i.e. the need for calibrated inter-laboratory standards (particularly for oxygen isotope analysis), and the need for reduced sample size in order to accommodate the analysis of explosion residues. The work is needed in order to make delta18O, delta13C, and delta15N measurements on confiscated and post-blast residues of high explosives widely useful for linking materials, perpetrators and sites of assembly. Two African American women undergraduate "scientists-in-training" will participate in this work, and some results of this study will be shared with students in grade 7 through college, to encourage them to enter careers in science.