Detecting of chemical warfare agents & on-scene chemical identification of explosives
Finding evidence in plants for the use of chemical weapons
Analytical scientists at UvA together with colleagues from TNO have demonstrated that chemical warfare agents react with plant proteins to form stable protein adducts. These ‘biomarkers’ could still be detected in the living plants, as well as in dried leaves, up to three months after the actual exposure. This enables forensic reconstructions of the use of chemical weapons, which can assist investigations into alleged use in conflict areas.
Improving the on-site detection of chemical warfare agents
In a joint project, TNO Defense, Security and Safety, the UvA and Wageningen University and Research set out to develop novel methods for detecting chemical warfare agents in the field. At the heart of the cooperation is research by Jelle de Koning as a special PhD student with Prof. Arian van Asten at UvA. He will work on innovative instrumental methods as well as data analysis strategies, to enable rapid and robust on-site detection and provisional identification of a broad spectrum of chemical warfare agents (CWAs).
Rapid on-scene chemical identification of intact explosives
Combining portable near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy with multivariate data analysis offers excellent opportunities to identify traces of intact explosive materials. In a study of actual forensic casework samples, PhD student Irene van Damme at UvA and co-authors show that NIR characterization can handle the chemical diversity encountered in forensic explosive investigations.