Simultaneous determination of inorganic and organic gunshot residues by capillary electrophoresis

A capillary electrophoresis method was developed to analyze simultaneously 11 organic and 10 inorganic components of gunshot residues as a cheaper and possibly more specific method comparing to traditional techniques. Pre-capillary complexation and simultaneously a micellar phase were combined to determine not only the metal but also the organic residues from a firearm. In order to test the possibility to apply the developed method to real cases, residues from shot samples from different firearms were analyzed and their results were compared with those obtained with electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy, an established technique for gunshot residue analysis. Good agreement between both techniques for lead was found.