Identification of ANFO: Use of luminescent taggants in post-blast residues

•We evaluated the performance of luminescent taggants added to ANFO explosives.•Taggant light emission favored the collection and analysis of post blast residues.•Samples were collected and analyzed in a simple, fast and non-destructive way.•Lanthanide Metal-Organic Frameworks showed to be quite suitable for tagging propose above 3 wt.%.

This work describes the incorporation of luminescent taggants in cartridges of ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) to allow easy identification and collection of post-blast residues. Metal-Organic Frameworks taggants proved to be appropriate for explosive marking when ANFO proportions were above 3.0 wt.%. Lanthanide-based light emission enabled in situ retrieval of explosive residues as well as chemical identification, allowing the creation of a coding system using Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). The proposed method will accelerate laboratory analysis and support forensic investigations, connecting evidence to suspects and/or to the explosive origin.

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