Abstract

A mixture of polyvinylpyrrolidone and 1,2-indanedione (PVP-IND) is known to be the best reagent for developing latent fingerprints deposited on the surface of a thermal paper. However, no study has evaluated whether PVP-IND could enhance fingerprints in blood deposited on the surface of thermal paper. Therefore, in this study, the ability of PVP-IND to enhance the fingerprints in blood was investigated. Furthermore, aqueous amido black solution, which is known to be the best reagent for enhancing fingerprints in blood deposited on the surface of thermal paper, was used for comparison with PVP-IND. Therefore, while enhancing the fingerprints in diluted blood, PVP-IND enhanced the quality of fingerprints compared to aqueous amido black solution. The ridge diffused when the undiluted fingerprints in blood were enhanced with PVP-IND because PVP reacted with amino acids in blood; however, amido black solution yielded better results. When treated with PVP-IND, it is presumed that the ridge diffused due to the reaction of PVP and amino acids contained in the blood.