Miniaturized Near-Infrared spectrophotometers in forensic analytical science - a critical review

Abstract

The advent of miniaturized NIR instruments, also known as compact, portable, or handheld, is revolutionizing how technology can be employed in forensics. In-field analysis becomes feasible and affordable with these new instruments, and a series of methods has been developed to provide the police and official agents with objective, easy-to-use, tailored, and accurate qualitative and quantitative forensic results. This work discusses the main aspects and presents a comprehensive and critical review of compact NIR spectrophotometers associated with analytical protocols to produce information on forensic matters.

Keywords: Forensic analytical science; In-field forensic analysis; Miniaturized near-infrared instruments; Near-infrared spectroscopy.