A comparison of extraction and adsorption methods for the recovery of accelerants from arson debris

Abstract Two different methods of recovering arson accelerants from fire debris are compared: distillation with addition of n -hexane and adsorption onto activated charcoal. Both procedures involve the use of the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) utilizing specific mass ion programs. Some casework examples have been analyzed and the results show that, in spite of the advantages of short application times in the adsorption method, the distillation technique presented a higher degree of efficiency.