Forensic analysis of gasoline in molotov cocktail using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and chemometric procedures

• Main Author: Jamaluddin, Mohamad Ismail
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: R5-130.5 General works
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/36432/1/Dr._Mohamad_Ismail_Jamaluddin__TSTZ_%28NN24%29.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/36432/

Terdapat peningkatan yang ketara dalam rampasan Molotov koktel oleh Polis Diraja Malaysia, terutamanya semasa demonstrasi jalanan, ketegangan agama dan konflik sosial. Semasa penyiasatan forensik, pengumpulan maklumat dan siasatan terhadap komposisi bahan boleh menjadi penghubung antara kes-kes yang berbeza, atau sumber dan kumpulan orang yang terlibat. Tesis ini mengkaji kepelbagaian gasolin yang biasa digunakan sebagai bahan api dalam Molotov koktel dengan menggunakan kromatografi gas-spektrometri jisim (GC-MS) dan teknik kemometrik untuk analisis data lanjutan termasuk analisis komponen utama (PCA) dan analisa hiraki kelompok. Dua puluh tujuh sample telah dikumpul dari stesen minyak berbeza. Gasolin yang didapati daripada dua stesen minyak terpilih pada selang masa yang berbeza selama 28 hari telah dikaji untuk melihat perubahan profil dari masa ke masa. There has been a significant increase in the number of seizure of Molotov cocktail by the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) during street demonstrations, religious tensions and society conflicts in Malaysia recently. In a forensic science investigation, information gathered for intelligence purposes and investigation on the composition of a material of interest may serve as a link between different cases, or to a particular source or group of people involved. This thesis studies the variability (in term of chemical profiles) of gasoline commonly used as accelerant in Molotov cocktail using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) coupled with chemometric techniques for advanced data analysis including principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). A total of 27 samples of fresh gasoline were collected from different service stations. Collection of gasoline samples from two selected service stations at different time interval over 28 days was conducted to study their profiles changes over time.