Forensic examination of electrical tapes using high resolution magic angle spinning (1)H NMR spectroscopy.

The application of high resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) (1)H NMR spectroscopy is ideally suited for the differentiation of plastics. In addition to the actual material composition, the different types of polymer architectures and tacticity provide characteristic signals in the fingerprint of the (1)H NMR spectra. The method facilitates forensic comparison, as even small amounts of insoluble but swellable plastic particles are utilized. The performance of HR-MAS NMR can be verified against other methods that were recently addressed in various articles about forensic tape comparison. In this study samples of the 90 electrical tapes already referenced by the FBI laboratory were used. The discrimination power of HR-MAS is demonstrated by the fact that more tape groups can be distinguished by NMR spectroscopy than by using the combined evaluation of several commonly used analytical techniques. An additional advantage of this robust and quick method is the very simple sample preparation.