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                            Funding & Awards
 A New Analytical Technique to Identify Surface Treatments of a Single Fiber
Note:
              This awardee has received supplemental funding. This award detail page includes information about both the original award and supplemental awards.
Award Information
Awardee
              GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Award #
              2017-R2-CX-0007
Funding Category
              Competitive Discretionary
Location
                    WASHINGTON, DC
Congressional District
              98
Status
              Closed
Funding First Awarded
              2017
Total funding (to date)
              $149,950
Original Solicitation
              NIJ FY17 Graduate Research Fellowship Program in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2017, $50,000)
The goal of this proposal is to develop a technique to distinguish between single fibers based on their surface coatings.
The use of fibers as evidence in court has been long-established as a type of associative evidence. Chemical analysis of the fibers has added significant evidentiary value to fibers by providing identification and classification based on fiber composition.
However, the current methods mostly focus on characterization of fiber cores. The ability to distinguish between fiber surface modifications significantly increases their evidentiary value.
Many chemical fiber surface modifications are currently used to impart certain functionalities such as stain resistance. Among the surface coatings, fluorinated polymers are common as they provide both water and oil repellence. These coatings are often very thin, and the fibers found as evidence are typically small, making chemical identification a challenging analytical task. Techniques such as surface-sensitive attenuated total reflectance FT-IR and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy have been unsuccessful for identification of these modifications.
A promising approach is pyrolysis-GC-MS. The application of high temperature in the absence of oxygen breaks the polymer into smaller pieces for detection by GC-MS. The fragmentation pattern depends on the original structure of the polymer. Therefore, the fragments can be used to identify the chemical nature of the coating. However, the sensitivity in this approach is too low for practical applications, requiring a 30-mm^2 piece of fabric.
A major reason for low sensitivity is that the large mass of the fiber core masks the signal produced by the thin polymer coating.
To enable differentiation between types of fluorinated polymer coatings at the single fiber level, this proposal will employ a new analytical technique, plasma-assisted reaction chemical ionization (PARCI)-MS, eliminating the interference from fiber core in detection of pyrolysis products. The proposed pyrolysis-GC-PARCI-MS technique selectively detects elemental fluorine in pyrolysis products of the fiber separated by GC, revealing fiber surface information in pyrograms. The high sensitivity of GC-PARCI-MS at low pg level for fluorine will enable single fiber analysis. Moreover, the technology can be expanded to detection of other halogenated additives in fibers. Considering the prevalence of fluorinated coatings and other halogenated additives in textiles, this technique is expected to significantly enhance the value of fiber analysis, providing forensic investigators with more evidence to perform their roles in the justice system.
ca/ncf
Supplemental Award 1 (Fiscal Year 2018, $50,000)
The goal of this proposal is to develop a technique to distinguish between single fibers based on their surface coatings.
The use of fibers as evidence in court has been long-established as a type of associative evidence. Chemical analysis of the fibers has added significant evidentiary value to fibers by providing identification and classification based on fiber composition.
However, the current methods mostly focus on characterization of fiber cores. The ability to distinguish between fiber surface modifications significantly increases their evidentiary value.
Many chemical fiber surface modifications are currently used to impart certain functionalities such as stain resistance. Among the surface coatings, fluorinated polymers are common as they provide both water and oil repellence. These coatings are often very thin, and the fibers found as evidence are typically small, making chemical identification a challenging analytical task. Techniques such as surface-sensitive attenuated total reflectance FT-IR and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy have been unsuccessful for identification of these modifications.
A promising approach is pyrolysis-GC-MS. The application of high temperature in the absence of oxygen breaks the polymer into smaller pieces for detection by GC-MS. The fragmentation pattern depends on the original structure of the polymer. Therefore, the fragments can be used to identify the chemical nature of the coating. However, the sensitivity in this approach is too low for practical applications, requiring a 30-mm^2 piece of fabric.
A major reason for low sensitivity is that the large mass of the fiber core masks the signal produced by the thin polymer coating.
To enable differentiation between types of fluorinated polymer coatings at the single fiber level, this proposal will employ a new analytical technique, plasma-assisted reaction chemical ionization (PARCI)-MS, eliminating the interference from fiber core in detection of pyrolysis products. The proposed pyrolysis-GC-PARCI-MS technique selectively detects elemental fluorine in pyrolysis products of the fiber separated by GC, revealing fiber surface information in pyrograms. The high sensitivity of GC-PARCI-MS at low pg level for fluorine will enable single fiber analysis. Moreover, the technology can be expanded to detection of other halogenated additives in fibers. Considering the prevalence of fluorinated coatings and other halogenated additives in textiles, this technique is expected to significantly enhance the value of fiber analysis, providing forensic investigators with more evidence to perform their roles in the justice system.
ca/ncf
    Supplemental Award 2 (Fiscal Year 2019, $49,950)
The goal of this proposal is to develop a technique to distinguish between single fibers based on their surface coatings.
The use of fibers as evidence in court has been long-established as a type of associative evidence. Chemical analysis of the fibers has added significant evidentiary value to fibers by providing identification and classification based on fiber composition.
However, the current methods mostly focus on characterization of fiber cores. The ability to distinguish between fiber surface modifications significantly increases their evidentiary value.
Many chemical fiber surface modifications are currently used to impart certain functionalities such as stain resistance. Among the surface coatings, fluorinated polymers are common as they provide both water and oil repellence. These coatings are often very thin, and the fibers found as evidence are typically small, making chemical identification a challenging analytical task. Techniques such as surface-sensitive attenuated total reflectance FT-IR and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy have been unsuccessful for identification of these modifications.
A promising approach is pyrolysis-GC-MS. The application of high temperature in the absence of oxygen breaks the polymer into smaller pieces for detection by GC-MS. The fragmentation pattern depends on the original structure of the polymer. Therefore, the fragments can be used to identify the chemical nature of the coating. However, the sensitivity in this approach is too low for practical applications, requiring a 30-mm^2 piece of fabric.
A major reason for low sensitivity is that the large mass of the fiber core masks the signal produced by the thin polymer coating.
To enable differentiation between types of fluorinated polymer coatings at the single fiber level, this proposal will employ a new analytical technique, plasma-assisted reaction chemical ionization (PARCI)-MS, eliminating the interference from fiber core in detection of pyrolysis products. The proposed pyrolysis-GC-PARCI-MS technique selectively detects elemental fluorine in pyrolysis products of the fiber separated by GC, revealing fiber surface information in pyrograms. The high sensitivity of GC-PARCI-MS at low pg level for fluorine will enable single fiber analysis. Moreover, the technology can be expanded to detection of other halogenated additives in fibers. Considering the prevalence of fluorinated coatings and other halogenated additives in textiles, this technique is expected to significantly enhance the value of fiber analysis, providing forensic investigators with more evidence to perform their roles in the justice system.
ca/ncf


  
Grant-Funded Publications
        
                      Detection and diversity of fluorinated oil- and water-repellent coatings on apparel fibers
                  Effects of outdoor weathering and laundering on the detection and classification of fluorinated oil-and-water-repellent fabric coatings
                  Elemental Fluorine Detection by Dielectric Barrier Discharge Coupled to Nanoelectrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Nontargeted Analysis of Fluorinated Compounds
                  Classifying Single Fibers Based on Fluorinated Surface Treatments

  
Date Created: September 6, 2017
    
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