ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Synthesis of new naphthoquinone analogues as potential fingermark development reagents

Kıymet Berkil Akar, Barış Eran, and Oğuzhan Bebek

Department of Chemistry, Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University, Tokat, Türkiye

E-mail: kiymet.berkilakar@gop.edu.tr

Received: 15 April 2025  Accepted: 2 July 2025

Abstract:

Fingermark detection plays a key role in forensic investigations. The development of fingermark reagents is important in terms of making more fingermarks visible in the collected evidence. Suggestion of lawsone as a fingermark reagent and subsequent studies revealed that naphthoquinone analogues have a potential for use in the development of latent fingermarks on porous surfaces. In the present study, we synthesized and characterized a new series of 2-substituted naphthoquinones and performed a SPR study to determine the relationship of the substituent structure at the 2-position of the compounds to their effectiveness as a fingermark reagent. The naphthoquinone solutions were applied to fingermarks on the copier paper. All the naphthoquinones developed both fresh and aged (from one-week to three-months) latent fingermarks as photoluminescence impressions with high contrast and clear ridges. This study presents a comparison of the naphthoquinones and DFO. When the results were evaluated, it can be said that the performance of the naphthoquinones was equal to or lower than the performance of the DFO.

Keywords: Latent fingermark; Photoluminescence; Lawsone; Naphthoquinone; DFO

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-025-04232-z

Chemical Papers 79 (10) 6897–6906 (2025)