Identification of ignitable liquids in fire debris samples is typically conducted via comparison of total ion chromatograms (TICs) of such samples to reference collections containing chromatograms of common liquids. Due to the extent of liquid evaporation in fires, reference collections often contain TICs of ignitable liquids that have been experimentally evaporated to various levels; however, such evaporations can be time intensive. A kinetic model was developed to predict evaporation rate constants of compounds as a function of GC retention index. The model can be applied to predict chromatograms of ignitable liquids at any evaporation level, alleviating the need to perform experimental evaporations. Previous work demonstrated good predictive accuracy of the model for petroleum distillate liquids and gasoline.In this work, the kinetic model was applied to ignitable liquids of the isoparaffinic, naphthenic-paraffinic, and aromatic ASTM classes. Predicted extracted ion profiles (EIPs) were generated in addition to TICs for each liquid, and good predictive accuracy of the model was demonstrated with PPMC coefficients as high as 0.9983. Reference collections containing predicted TICs and EIPs were generated. The TICs and EIPs of single-blind samples and large-scale burn samples were compared to the reference collections; in all cases, the correct ASTM liquid class was identified. Use of the EIP reference collection for the burn samples resulted in higher correlation compared to the TIC collection due to reduced substrate interferences. Overall, this work demonstrates the utility of a kinetic model for generating predicted reference collections as a tool in the identification of ignitable liquids for fire debris applications.
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