Taggant materials in forensic science: A review

• The use of forensic taggant technologies has become considerably more widespread.
• The application of taggant materials for forensic purposes are described.
• The different coding methods used in commercial marking materials to infer identity are explored.
• Recent developments in the field are discussed along with future perspectives.

The use of taggant technology to mark objects for the purpose of identification is becoming a significant part of national crime reduction strategies. Taggants may be able to prevent or monitor criminal offences by associating an object with a specific piece of information. While the material properties of a taggant will largely vary between application purposes, a specific ‘coding’ element will generally be incorporated to infer marker uniqueness. With the speed, simplicity and accuracy of coding component analysis largely determining the overall efficacy of taggants, continuing advances in portable in-field analysis, nanotechnology and material science should have allowed for the development of new and improved forensic marking agents. However, the limited amount of recent research in this area suggests that this is not the case. This critical review therefore examines the current state of presently available taggants before attempting to offer insight into the future direction of forensic marking technology.