Carbogenically coated silica nanoparticles and their forensic applications

Abstract

Carbogenically coated silica nanoparticles (C-SiO₂) exhibit color-tunability and carry great promise for two important forensic applications. First, the C-SiO₂ nanopowders are ideal for fingerprint development, yielding strong contrast against multicoloured and patterned backgrounds. Second, spontaneous nanoparticle aggregation leads to non-duplicable, inexpensive nanotags that can support sustainable technologies to combat counterfeiting.