Developing in-situ analysis methods for energetic materials, and assessing the latter's interactions with environments and crime scenes.

工作性质：原位分析，质谱分析，采样方法，高能化合物代谢。该项目将围绕评估高能材料与其环境（包括体液和其他法医证据）的相互作用，以及由此产生的对其侦查和证据可靠性的影响展开。研究领域：分析科学、高能化合物合成、代谢组学；法医-犯罪现场和证据潜在影响：该跨学科博士项目将汇集尖端的直接分析方法和合成化学，以开发用于测定生物样品和残留物（如手印）中含能物质的原位分析技术。这将支持对秘密制造和处理新型和/或简易爆炸物进行法医调查。还将研究高能材料及其合成前体的细胞代谢，以确定是否有可能利用特征代谢物将个人与炸药的合成联系起来。因此，这项工作将影响我们打击恐怖主义活动和计划的能力。简要描述：该项目将涉及合成临时高能材料和已知爆炸物的模拟物。在用原位质谱法和/或离子迁移率谱法进行表征之前，像TATP这样的高能物质将沉积在生物流体样品和表面残留物中，以便在法医痕量分析的背景下研究它们如何在不同的生物样品基质中持续存在。将开发新的采样和提取策略，以确保从不同的表面和材料中有效地检索。将使用肝微粒体体外测定法研究不同爆炸物、模拟物和合成前体的代谢，以产生爆炸物化合物的代谢物；然后可将这些物质与生物液体结合起来，评估其作为简易炸药合成过程中暴露标志物的诊断潜力。该项目将由化学系的Paul Kelly教授、George Weaver博士和Jim Reynolds博士共同监督，涉及化学合成、质谱分析和代谢组学分析。学生将在所有这些分支学科的实验室中工作，以便在新颖的法医方法中获得真正的多学科培训。

Nature of work: in-situ analysis, mass spectrometry, sampling methodologies, energetic compound metabolism. This project will be centred around the assessment of the interactions of energetic materials with their environment, including bodily fluids and other forensic evidence, and the resulting implications for their detection and evidential reliability.Area: Analytical science, energetic compound synthesis, metabolomics; forensics - crime scene and evidencePotential implications: This interdisciplinary PhD project will bring together cutting-edge direct analysis methods and synthetic chemistry in order to develop in-situ analysis techniques for the determination of energetic materials in bio-samples and residues (e.g. fingermarks). This will support forensic investigations into the clandestine manufacture and handling of novel and/or improvised explosives. The cellular metabolism of the energetic materials and their synthetic precursors will also be studied to determine whether the presence of characteristic metabolites could potentially be used to link an individual with the synthesis of explosives. As such, the work will impact on our capability to counter terrorist activity and planning.Brief description: The project will involve synthesising improvised energetic materials and simulants for known explosives. Energetic materials such as TATP will be deposited in biofluid samples and residues on surfaces, before characterisation with in-situ mass spectrometry and/or ion mobility spectrometry in order to investigate how they persist in different biological sample matrices in the context of forensic trace analysis. Novel sampling and extraction strategies will be developed to ensure effective retrieval from different surfaces and materials. The metabolism of different explosives, simulants and synthetic precursors will be studied using in-vitro assays with liver microsomes in order to produce metabolites of explosive compounds; these can then be combined with biofluids to evaluate their diagnostic potential as markers of exposure during the synthesis of improvised explosives.The project will be jointly supervised by Prof Paul Kelly, Dr George Weaver and Dr Jim Reynolds in the Department of Chemistry, and involves chemical synthesis, mass spectrometry and metabolomics analysis. The student will work across labs from all these sub-disciplines in order to gain a truly multidisciplinary training in novel forensic approaches.