DetectionSmall, portable, fast TLC unit for explosives, drugs analysis

Field Forensics of St. Petersburg, Florida, unveiled its microTLC, a portable and easy to use solution for pre-screening and presumptive identification of drugs and explosive mixtures. The company says that in addition to achieving package miniaturization using only one thin layer chromatography (TLC) plate, the microTLC has other useful features, including an integrated ultra-violet light source, digital video camera for plate analysis and record management, extended battery operation, together with menu-driven operations.

TLC is an established laboratory procedure which identifies compounds belonging to the same general chemical class. Now the microTLC makes it possible for both laboratory and field analysis to be performed by first responders and forensics scientists.

The company says that the microTLC provides a streamlined sampling and testing protocol that allows rapid, reproducible, separation and identification of the real-world drugs and cutting agents, explosives and precursors, with extended use to a wide range of hazardous materials. The miniaturized kit employs commercially available plates as the separation medium and a colorimetric identification scheme that provides confirmation of the identity of the analyte under analysis. 

Pre-spotted plates can be used with drugs and explosives standard materials. The company notes that total analysis times can be less than three minutes.

Limits of detectability are typically at nanogram levels. Picogram levels are possible.

The elution solvent in the microTLC can be quickly changed to develop a different separation pattern. This provides a method to refine the identity of a suspected drug or explosive without physically changing the type of TLC plate. This is important when there may be a non-drug or non-explosive material that has the same retention factor as one of the standard drug or explosive compounds. 

The company says that many different types of explosive materials in commercial compounds, home-made bombs, and improvised explosive devices can be analyzed by the microTLC, including aliphatic compounds.  Law enforcement case work backlogs, created by the increasing availability of cocaine and heroin mixtures together with new classes of synthetic cannabinoids and substituted cathinones, can be alleviated with the high throughput analysis possible with the microTLC unit.

The microTLC is available now, and the company says it can be delivered within four weeks after receiving customer orders.