The DHS S&T Chemical Forensics Program is the lead federal program for the continuing development of tools and methods to support the forensic collection and analysis of samples related to chemical attacks.  Projects that are funded by this program support the attribution process, compile databases of chemical threat agent signatures, and address the reliability of forensic data for admissibility in judicial proceeding.  The chemicals that are of interest to this program are chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals or other toxic materials that would present a substantial risk to the population should they be used in a crime.  Methods developed for sample matching and source determination have exploited signatures intrinsic and extrinsic to the chemical of interest using orthogonal methods, when possible.  Intrinsic signatures such as isotopic profiles and stereoisomer ratios have provided valuable tools for the analysis of several chemicals of interest to the program.  The extrinsic signatures such as impurity profiles that are present in chemical samples provide valuable information on the precursors and reaction chemistry that were used to produce the chemicals of interest.  Understanding of attribution signatures and the synthesis pathways with which they are associated provides valuable insight into the possible source of collected chemical samples.  The goal of the chemical forensic program is to incrementally increase the level of scientific preparedness needed to support criminal and terrorist investigations.  For the Chemical Forensics program to be successful, the methods and technical approaches must be presented in open scientific discussions and peer reviewed in quality scientific publications.  A successful Chemical Forensics program relies of a vibrant scientific community willing to innovate and share the results of their research with the broader scientific community.<br/>

DHS S&T chemical forensics program

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.