Measuring Evaporation Rate Constants of Highly Volatile Compounds and Investigating the Effect of Interface on a Kinetic Model Applied to Forensic Fire Debris

• NCJ Number: 304338
• Author(s): A. Burkhart
• Date Published: 2021
• Length: 158 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2018-DU-BX-0225
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Investigating Kinetic and Thermodynamic Approaches to Predict Evaporation of Gasoline at Elevated Temperatures for Fire Debris Applications

Annotation

A kinetic model was previously developed in the authors’ laboratory to predict evaporation of compounds as a function of gas chromatographic retention index (IT), and evaporation rate constants were experimentally determined for compounds in the range IT = 800 – 1400 to define the initial model.

Abstract

Although the predictive accuracy was demonstrated, broader application of the model, especially for forensic fire debris applications, requires extension of the IT range to include more volatile compounds; however, such extension requires experimental determination of rate constants, which is challenging due to the explosive hazard and rapid evaporation of volatile compounds. (Publisher Abstract)