Supercritical fluid chromatography in forensic science: a critical appraisal

Emerging Separation Techniques in Supercritical Fluid Chromatography

Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) has unique separative characteristics distinguished from those of HPLC and gas chromatography. At present, SFC is widely used and there are many applications in various biological, medical, and pharmaceutical fields. In this review, we focus on recently developed novel techniques related to SFC separation including: new column stationary phases, microfluidics, two-dimensional separation, and gas-liquid separation. In addition, we discuss the application of SFC using a water-containing modifier to biological molecules such as amino acids, peptides, and small proteins that had been challenging analytes.

Applications of supercritical fluid extraction and chromatography in forensic science

Supercritical fluid technology is a rapidly expanding analytical technique. Here we give a brief insight into the background of supercritical fluid technology and how supercritical fluid extraction and supercritical fluid chromatography work in analysis. The applications of these two techniques in forensic science are known to be important. The main area of forensic use of supercritical fluid technology is in the sample preparation and separation of drugs of abuse particularly opiates, cannabinoids, cocaine and sedatives. Supercritical fluid technology can be used for both time-of-death-related drug analysis and for obtaining information relating to long term drug abuse. We also give a review of the use of supercritical fluids in two other major forensic areas, fingerprinting and the extraction and separation of explosives from both bombing events and gunshot residues. Overall we show that supercritical fluid technology is fast becoming a major part of forensic investigations and that it is an invaluable analysis technique.