New gunpowder residue test developed

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., April 8 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've developed a highly reliable, rapid and inexpensive test for detecting the presence of gun powder residue.

Sam Houston State University researchers in Huntsville, Ala., said their test for gunshot residue, or GSR, fills a need that results from increasing use of "green," or lead-free, ammunition.

The test requires only a single speck of GSR smaller than a period at the end of a sentence and could boost the accuracy of one of the most widely used tests employed at crime scenes involving gunplay, they said.

The test, said the scientists, extracts nearly all components of gunpowder residue from particles about 15 times smaller than the width of a human hair, without the use of chemical reagents. After extraction, gas chromatography coupled with a nitrogen phosphorus detector is used to separate and identify the analytes.

The research by graduate student Garrett Lee Burleson and his adviser, Assistant Professor Jorn Chi Chung, was presented Monday in New Orleans during the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society.