Determination of Gasoline Residues on Carpets by SPME-GC-MS Technique

The analysis of traces ignitable liquids on a burned carpet could provide information to a forensic investigation. While the research on this field is still limited, this study illustrates the capabilities of the solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to detect and identify gasoline residue from fire debris. The technique proved to be rapid, simple and efficient; it does not require specific skills or solvents for the extraction. The obtained results indicate that the amount of fuel used to ignite the carpet samples and a carpet thickness, play an important role on the presence and survival of the gasoline residues. This depends on the adsorption capacity of the burned carpet, where it is preferred to take samples from thin carpets rather than thick one, i.e., gasoline traces were detected up to 5 h, above carpet of 5mm thickness using 2mL accelerant.