Metastable 9-Fluorenone: Blueshifted Fluorescence, Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Reactivity, and Evaluation as a Multimodal Fingermark Visualization Treatment

Grace E Florence; Katy A Bruce; Helena J Shepherd; William J Gee

doi:10.1002/chem.201901301

Metastable 9-Fluorenone: Blueshifted Fluorescence, Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Reactivity, and Evaluation as a Multimodal Fingermark Visualization Treatment

Chemistry. 2019 Jul 22;25(41):9597-9601. doi: 10.1002/chem.201901301. Epub 2019 Jun 27.

Authors

Grace E Florence¹, Katy A Bruce¹, Helena J Shepherd¹, William J Gee¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NH, UK.

PMID: 31111974
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201901301

Abstract

A metastable form of 9-fluorenone (MS9F) has been characterized using Raman spectroscopy, fluorimetry, and X-ray diffraction techniques. MS9F emits blue fluorescence (λ_max =495 nm) upon 365 nm irradiation and undergoes a single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) transformation to reach the ground state form (GS9F) over approximately 30 minutes, whereupon it emits the expected green fluorescence. A structure-property relationship for this fluorescent behavior has been posited. MS9F and GS9F were applied as a means of visualizing latent fingermarks on a nonporous surface. This approach identified three different modes of fluorescent fingermark visualization using 9-fluorenone.

Keywords: Fingermark; Fluorenone; Fluorescence; Forensics; Raman spectroscopy.

Abstract

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