Abstract:
The purpose of this investigation was to examine everyday manufactured products and analyse them to determine whether they contained compounds that are known components of petroleum products or common solvents. The results were used to determine how the products may affect the results of fire debris analysis. There were two main parts to this investigation. The first part focused on common household products, whereas the second part focused on building materials and furnishings in which processes like combustion and pyrolysis were considered. The techniques used to analyse the products involved passive headspace extraction of samples using activated charcoal strips, followed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy to analyse the extract and then interpretation of the chromatograms. Due to the unpredictability of fire, it is important to know how certain products can react while burning and the by-products that can result from processes like combustion and pyrolysis. Therefore, a number of products were burnt prior to extraction and analysis. This was the reason for part two of the investigation. The results of this research showed that the vast majority of common products did not produce any fuel-like chemical profiles. The few products that did produce these however, displayed medium and heavy petroleum distillate profiles. A large number of products had compounds identified in their chromatograms that are known components of petrol or other ignitable liquids. Some products contained detectable levels of flammable solvents. None of the products produced petrol-like profiles. The level of potential interference that each product may cause in the interpretation of a chromatogram was also investigated. Several products produced a large number of peaks that could significantly obscure important peaks in the chromatogram of a casework fire debris sample and cause problems with its interpretation. However, the identification of these peaks should minimise the interference overall.