Forensic Analysis of Human Autopsy Tissue for the Presence of Polydimethylsiloxane (Silicone) and Volatile Cyclic Siloxanes using Macro FT-IR, FT-IR Spectroscopic Imaging and Headspace GC-MS.

This study describes effective and straightforward primary and secondary methods for the detection of silicone in human autopsy tissue. The primary method is polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) specific and employs either macro-attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FT-IR) spectroscopy for samples with a high PDMS concentration (relative to that of the matrix) or micro-FT-IR spectroscopic imaging in a reflection/absorption modality for samples with a low PDMS concentration. Although the secondary method is not PDMS specific, it employs headspace gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (HS/GC-MS) for the detection of low molecular weight volatile cyclic siloxanes (VCS), which are characteristic marker compounds for PDMS. Overall, the combined results from the primary and secondary analyses provide reliable evidence for the presence of silicone. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.