Abstract
Microbial forensics, exploiting bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, has been considered as one of the primary fields to trace the postmortem interval from the decaying cadavers. On the other hand, there remain several challenges of laboratory-based analysis for prediction of postmortem interval, including long-time measurement, complicated measuring procedure, and bacterial growth while carrying samples from the scene. Herein, we introduce the Smart Forensic Kit, which consists of a highly sensitive colorimetric gas sensor, a quality control algorithm, and a smartphone-based analysis method, to quantify the bacterial-derived ammonia gas in real-time. As a result, the estimation system of the postmortem interval has a superior selectivity to the ammonia gas with a detection limit of 38.7 ppb, response linearity to the target bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Pseudomonas putida), and short measuring time (10 min) with the maximum predicted postmortem interval from the mouse carcass (168 h). Furthermore, thanks to measuring the postmortem interval within 10 min, the negligible increase rate of bacterial concentration was observed. Consequently, the results reflected a high correlation between the ammonia gas emitted from bacteria and the postmortem interval so that we believe the Smart Forensic Kit will be applied for tracing down the decomposition of the cadavers in the near future.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 128612 |
Journal | Sensors and Actuators, B: Chemical |
Volume | 322 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 Nov 1 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by R&D Convergence Program of NST (National Research Council of Science and Technology of Republic of Korea1711021658) of Republic of Korea, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST through 2E30410), and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (MSIP) (No. 2015M3A9D7067364) for their generous financial support to carry out this research.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by R&D Convergence Program of NST (National Research Council of Science and Technology of Republic of Korea 1711021658 ) of Republic of Korea, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST through 2E30410 ), and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (MSIP) (No. 2015M3A9D7067364 ) for their generous financial support to carry out this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Instrumentation
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Surfaces, Coatings and Films
- Metals and Alloys
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Materials Chemistry