Study on the use of Rhodamine doped nanocomposite for latent fingerprint detection

摘要

Silicon dioxide-based nanocomposites offer large loading capacity for various doping chemicals or molecular complexes, high surface to volume ratio and customizable surface chemistry for the creation and development of novel sensors and devices. When compared with other sol-gel materials, xerogels represent a class of nanocomposites that are relatively easy to fabricate but with unique thermal, acoustic, optical and mechanical properties for rapid sensor or device prototyping development. Xerogels in solids are formed by controlled evaporation of the liquid in the hydro-gel. Their porosity and morphology depend largely on the temperature, gel chemical compositions and pH in the fabrication process. When impregnated with fluorescent compounds in their nanosize cavities, the doped xerogels exhibit strong and stable fluorescence properties that are useful for the developing of ion-exchange sensors and optical devices. However, the use of these fluorescently doped xerogels in forensic applications was still largely unexplored.