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Chlorates and perchlorates, inorganic salts known for their potent oxidizing properties, find utility in various products such as pyrotechnics, matches, and disinfectants. Their chemical properties also make them suitable for homemade explosives, resulting in their extensive use by criminals. Hence, the forensic analysis of these compounds is vital for investigating crimes involving their utilization. A wide array of analytical techniques is available for detecting and quantifying these substances, offering forensic investigators an extensive toolkit to effectively analyze and identify chlorates and perchlorates in various samples. Recent research highlights the potential for leveraging the information obtained from analyzing these materials, including for intelligence purposes. The future of forensic analysis in this domain lies in extracting additional information, such as source attribution, through methods like chemometrics, thereby enhancing forensic intelligence capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes may be associated with a wide range of criminal and terrorist activity as physical evidence. In this study, a carbon powder suspension formulation for the detection of latent fingermarks on the adhesive side of tapes was modified by using consumer products as alternative surfactant sources. The modified formulations were used to successfully develop latent fingermarks deposited on transparent adhesive tape. This project ultimately intends to establish the performance windows of the modified techniques to allow evidence-based decision-making during technical exploitation in contested and austere environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil is the world's fifth largest country by land mass and seventh most populous. It presents a wide range of geographical and environmental differences in addition to heterogeneous resource availability, leading to major challenges in forensic science service provision. Here, we report the initial results from a survey of Brazilian fingerprint practitioners conducted in early 2023 to better comprehend the tools used for the recovery and detection of latent fingermarks, and to identify the main challenges facing Brazilian fingerprint practitioners in this regard. This will subsequently form the basis for the targeted development of sustainable latent fingermark protocols suitable for deployment in the Brazilian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: Emerging engineering strategies of colloidal metal‐semiconductor nanorod hybrid nanostructures spanning from type, size, dimension, and location of both metal nanoparticles and semiconductors, co‐catalyst, band gap structure, surface ligand to hole scavenger are elaborated symmetrically to rationalize the design of this type of intriguing materials for efficient photocatalytic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]