Forensic application of gas chromatography-differential mobility spectrometry with two-way classification of ignitable liquids from fire debris.

With respect to the emerging role of forensic science for arson investigation, a low cost and promising onsite detection method for ignitable liquids is desirable. Gas chromatography-differential mobility spectrometry (GC-DMS) was investigated as a tool for analysis of ignitable liquids from fire debris. Headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was applied as the preconcentration and sampling method. The combined information afforded by gas chromatography and differential mobility spectrometry provided unique two-way patterns for each sample of ignitable liquid. Two-way GC-DMS data were classified into one of seven ignitable liquids using a fuzzy rule-building expert system (FuRES). The performance of the classifier was validated using bootstrap Latin partitions (BLPs) and also compared to optimized partial least-squares (PLS) classifiers. Better prediction results can be obtained by using two-way GC-DMS data than only using one-way total ion chromatograms or integrated differential mobility spectra. FuRES models constructed with the neat ignitable liquids identified the spiked samples from simulated fire debris with 99.07 +/- 0.04% accuracy.