Forensic Paint Analysis

What is Paint
• Paints or Coatings are liquid, paste, or
powder products which are applied to
surfaces by various methods and
equipment in layers of given thickness.
• These form adherent films on the surface
of the substrate
 How can paint tell a story??
• Able to associate an individual or vehicle with a
crime scene
– Hit and Run cases—dried paint/paint smears transfers
to clothing or vehicle upon impact
– Burglaries—paint can be transferred onto tools used to
break into things
• Can identify color, year, make, model of a car by
paint recovered at an accident

The vehicle
involved in a hit-
and-run of a
bicyclist who later
died left white
paint chips at the
scene.
 Composition
• Paint is composed of a
binder, pigments,
solvents and different
additives

• Most paint is applied

in layers
 Pigments
• Pigments are finely divided colored (or white) insoluble
particles having a high refractive index, typically >1.70.
• color and opacity are the primary functions of pigments.
• In addition, some pigments (for example, chrome
pigments, zinc phosphate pigments) exhibit functional
properties such as corrosion resistance, resistance to UV
light, and anti-fouling properties.
• Pigments are classified based on their origin, whether
natural or synthetic, and on their functions as organic,
inorganic, metallic, and special effect pigments.
 Binders
• The term binder - refer to a resin since one of its roles is
to “bind” pigment particles in the dry film.
• Resins used for paints and coatings are polymeric
materials with film forming capabilities.
• 3 important example of binders:
acrylic polymers, alkyd polymers and epoxy polymers
 Hardness
 Adhesion
 Durability
 Solvents
• Used to control viscosity of the coatings
• Volatile compounds that must evaporate from the film after
application
• Many of these solvents are VOCs, which have harmful effects
on human health and the environment
• Efforts to reduce VOC emissions, and there are increasingly
stringent regulatory requirements for use of such solvents in
coatings.
• Waterborne coatings, which use water as the primary carrier
replacing organic solvents over solvent based coatings
 Additives
• To improve durability and performance
• Added in small quantities (up to ~5 % by
weight) that substantially improve or modify
properties of coatings
• Examples:
• silicones - to improve weather resistance
• driers - to accelerate drying time
• bactericides - to preserve water based paints in the can
• fungicides and algaecides - to protect exterior paint films
against disfigurement from moulds, algae and lichen
 Paint Layers on Vehicles
1. Electrocoat primer—applied to steel
body of car, provides corrosion
resistance, pigmented gray-black
2. Primer Surfacer—smooths out and hides
seams or imperfections (different
pigments),highly pigmented (light grey
for lighter colored cars and red oxide for
darker cars)
3. Basecoat—color coat; different additives
add different effects (pearl luster,
metallic look)
4. Clear coat—unpigmented layer,
improves gloss, durability, and
appearance
 How do we examine paint??
• Microscope
– Compare questioned
sample with control
(known) sample side by side
– Determine type of paint,
– Look at surface texture,
color, and color layer
sequence
– Layers—each layer of
recovered sample is
compared with
corresponding layer of the
control sample
Automotive paint cross section
• Stereomicroscopes can compare surface
texture and color layer sequence – Layer
Structure is very important
• – If two samples with several layers match
up, then they MOST LIKELY came from the
same source
 d.
p are
m
e co
e can b
n
sce
cr i me
at a
left
h ip
Pai nt c

Forensic scientist using a microscope to

compare paint chips from a car involved in an
accident with known samples of paint

Picture of paint comparison from hit and run

n ce
i nt evide
pa
cting
Col l e
Microscopic analysis is not sufficient
-Unfortunately, most paint specimens do
not have layers that can be
individualized to a single source, so a
chemical analysis must be done
Microchemical Tests/ Solvent test/ presumptive
test
• These tests are used to discriminate between paint
films of different pigment and binder composition
which are already similar in visual and macroscopical
appearance
• The Basis of these tests is that the different layers of
paint have a different chemical with oxidizing,
dehydrating reducing agent
• These Tests are destructive; therefore they should be
used only when sufficient questioned sample are
available
• Micro chemical tests can be applied to peeled
individual layer of paint to avoid interactivity with
adjacent layer, as well as intact paint chips.
FTIR
Binder peaks vs Pigment Peaks
 Techniques Used
in Paint
Comparisons
• Characterization of paint binders
– Pyrolysis gas chromatography
• Many solids cannot be injected into a gas
chromatograph, so items must be heated, or pyrolyzed,
to high temperatures so they will decompose into
gaseous products
• Then they are put into a chromatograph, and a
pyrogram
is produced showing the chemical makeup of the
binder
• Even the smallest of paint chips can be pyrolyzed
and sent through the gas chromatograph
• Pyrograms can distinguish one polymer from another
27
• Characteristics of paint pigments
– Emission spectrograph
• Can detect 15 – 20 elements in auto paint
simultaneously
• Some are common to all paints, but others
have significant forensic uniqueness

13
 Identification by Emission
Spectroscopy
• Unique elements produce a unique line
pattern (like a barcode) when
“excited” (for example, by an electric
arc)
• Ex: Hydrogen always makes
this “barcode”:
Significance of Paint Evidence
• How to tell if two similar paints come
from the same surface
– Paint layers beneath the surface layer
offer valuable points of comparison
– Color charts for automobile finishes are
available from manufacturers
– Paint Data Query (PDQ)
• A database that provides information on
paints based on make, model, and year
 Collection and
Preservation of Paint
Evidence
• Paint evidence is mostly involved
in burglaries and hit-and-run
incidents
• Paint chips should be picked up with
forceps and placed in a paper druggist
fold or a glass or plastic container

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reserved.
31
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 Collection and
Preservation of Paint
Evidence (continued)
• If paint is smeared on or embedded
into something, package the entire
item
• With hit-and-run cases, collect uncontaminated
paint from an undamaged area as a reference
for comparison
• ¼-inch square samples are sufficient, but
you must go all the way to bare metal
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reserved.
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Collection and Preservation of Paint
Evidence
• Collect sample from undamaged area of
vehicle for comparison
• Scrape paint with clean scalpel or knife
blade
• Tools used to break into building may contain
paint and other trace evidence– package the
WHOLE tool
• Collect reference samples from the area
around the break-in for comparison
Copyright © Texas Education Agency 2011. All rights
reserved.
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 Gary Ridgeway
“Green River Killer”

• 1970s and 80s—truck painter who killed in Seattle

area
• Killed between 50-90 women and dumped in
Green River
• Gary was suspected but never arrested
• Killing stop and case goes cold
• 2001—case is reanalyzed; paint on victims clothing
matched to highly specialized paint used at
Kenworth truck plant where Gary worked
• 2002—using paint analysis as well as DNA analysis
Gary is found convicted of 48 counts of murder
and was sentenced to 48 life sentences