New insights in forensic chemistry: NIR/Chemometrics analysis of toners for questioned documents examination

Near-Infrared spectroscopy (NIRs) coupled to chemometrics was investigated for the first time as a new tool for the analysis of black toners to evaluate its application in forensic cases. Ten black toners from four manufacturers were included in this study and the acquired spectra were compared in order to differentiate toners. Multivariate statistical analysis based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was considered to develop a model of comparison of toners in questioned documents. Results demonstrated the capabilities of the approach NIR/Chemometrics to correctly identify toners when printed on different papers and to be not affected by the printing process. This study has shown that NIRs can be considered as a useful, fast, nondestructive tool providing the characterisation of toners in forensic caseworks.