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http://dx.doi.org/10.5806/AST.2016.29.2.73

A case study on the fire victim in the vehicle by GC/MS through derivatization of cyanide with pentafluorobenzyl bromide (PFBBr)  

Lee, Joon-Bae (Department of Forensic Chemistry, National Forensic Service)
Shon, Sung Kun (Department of Forensic Science, Daejeon Health Institute of Technology)
Woo, Sang Hee (Daegu District Office, National Forensic Service)
Park, Se Yeon (Daegu District Office, National Forensic Service)
Hwang, Jung Ho (Daegu District Office, National Forensic Service)
Kwon, O-Seong (Department of Forensic Chemistry, National Forensic Service)
Kim, Nam Yi (Department of Forensic Chemistry, National Forensic Service)
Paeng, Ki Jung (Department of Chemistry, Yonsei University)
Publication Information
Analytical Science and Technology / v.29, no.2, 2016 , pp. 73-78 More about this Journal
Abstract
Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is an extremely toxic gas frequently produced during the incineration of plastics, such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS). A victim of a fire who has inhaled smoke could have cyanide in the blood. Therefore, cyanide could be a good marker for a post-mortem examination of a fire as well as carboxyhemoglobine (COHb) test of blood samples. For a particular fire case, a burned body with a suicide note was found inside a burned vehicle. Even though the COHb value is conclusive evidence, measuring the COHb for denatured blood might be difficult due to severe thermal denaturation or the formation of methemoglobin (MetHb). To overcome this difficulty, cyanide could be used as an indicator when investigating the death of a fire victim. In this study, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was adopted to measure the levels of cyanide in the blood through derivatization with pentafluorobenzyl bromide (PFBBr) under cation surfactant by scan and SIM mode. The concentration of cyanide in the blood of heart blood and brain of the victim was found to be 0.36 µg/mL and 1.20 µg/mL respectively, which was higher than the average value (0.041 µg/mL) found in the blood of 14 people who smoked.
Keywords
fire victim; cyanide; pentafluorobenzyl bromide; gas chromatography/mass spectrometry;
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