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However, to make a positive identification, a large number of
the components present has to be identified, and their ratios
have to be very similar to that of a standard.

Lithium-ion Batteries
Due to the outstanding development of their technology over
the last three decades, lithium-ion batteries are now extensively used in electronic devices, both of industrial interest and
consumer-grade portable systems. These devices mostly safe,
however they carry a risk of explosion, and the resulting injuries range in severity from superficial burns of low entity to
death in the most unlucky situations [12]. The U.S. Consumer
Safety Commission reported in February 2018 that in the previous five years, over 25,000 overheating or fire incidents
occurred involving a wide range of devices. Meanwhile the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported, in January
2020, that lithium-ion batteries were involved in 280 incidents
on aircraft or in airports since January 2006 [13]. Moreover,
in October 2016, the FAA banned passengers from carrying
Galaxy Note 7 devices on commercial aircraft after a series of
fires were caused by the phones. Samsung, the manufacturer,
recognized that errors in design and manufacturing in the
batteries were the cause of fires and took actions to induce customers to stop using their phones.
The investigations carried out in the framework of Forensic Science, and more specifically of Forensic Chemistry, of the
incidents involving lithium-ion batteries are devoted to determine the cause, the possible manufacturing or design defect
including review of safety devices, the inadequacy of the instructions or warnings given to the users, and the ignorance of
the instructions by the users.
As a matter of fact, the forensic approach, in order to
identify battery status, addresses the full range of critical
characteristics, through the examination of the battery composition, morphology and fundamental chemical/physical
properties by means of thermal analysis and electrochemistry
assessment. In particular, after overheating, the composition of
the materials or components may change, with a consequent
swelling that results from the decomposition of electrolyte

materials and leads to excess pressure within a cell. The porosity of the separator at different layers and different locations
within a cell allows it to develop a profile of the distribution
of the overheating conditions, and finally, the thermal properties may be changed due to the material degradation effect
caused by aging. All the work carried out allowed several common causes of failure of lithium-ion batteries to be identified:
defects of batteries and/or of charging equipment; battery
damage or mechanical damage; and wrong charging, electrical abuse and thermal abuse [14].
As an example, Fig. 6 shows a Samsung Galaxy Note 7
device which contains a lithium-ion battery that caught fire
during a test at the Applied Energy Hub Battery Laboratory of
Singapore [15].

Forensic Chemistry for the Environment
In recent times, Forensic Chemists are more and more involved
in systematic investigations of the polluted sites or accidents
that badly impacted the environment [16]. In newspapers often it is possible to read about an environmental lawsuit, and
from even small releases of pollutant, dramatic damages and
large cleanup costs may derive. Petroleum, ubiquitous as an
environmental contaminant, is frequently the subject of concern: from 2010 to 2020, the loss of 164,000 metric tons of oil
occurred in more than 60 accidents, of which just 10 incidents
were responsible for more than 90% of the spilled oil.
Due to its complex chemical composition, it is really difficult to determine the true nature and the origin of petroleum
spills, and consequently, it is difficult to ascribe the responsibility for and ownership of contamination. Methods that are
technically sound are needed to help in the elaboration of defensible opinions on the age and the sources of contamination
in the field of environmental tort litigation.
Environmental chemistry techniques are employed to
decipher the source and fate of pollutants as well as to determine their age [17]. For example, the Gas Technology Institute
and META Environmental Inc. developed an extensive database of pyrogenic and petrogenic chemical fingerprints by
using gas chromatography coupled with a flame ionization
detector (GC/FID) or with a mass spectrometer (GC/MS).
The chemical fingerprinting techniques are successful in discerning wastes from completely different sources, such as
Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP)-type wastes from different
plant operations.
In order to avoid the low sensitivity of these techniques in
the identification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH),
a new analytical method for the measurement of urban background PAH contamination was developed. This method
utilizes a gas chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometer
(GC/IRMS) to measure the compound-specific isotope ratio
(CSIR) carbon and reveals a great potential as an environmental forensic method.

On Site Investigations
Fig. 6. Destructive test carried out in a controlled environment on a device
containing a lithium-ion battery, which caught fire [15].
February 2021

In the last ten years, the outstanding importance of collecting data on the crime scene in the first hours after the criminal

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