Question

Forensics Analysis You are working with the County Crime Lab in the Forensics Division for a summer internship. You have been assigned to a case where an individual has been hospitalized after consuming a large quantity of various homemade wines during a local wine making competition. It is not currently known if he is suffering from ethanol poisoning or an illness from another source. You need to analyze the wines that he sampled and contribute to the investigation by answering the following questions. 1. Using the standard ethanol spectra, determine the percentage of ethanol in each wine sample. Sample #1: Sample #2: Sample #3: Sample #4: 2. Typically, wine contains 8-10% ethanol and cannot contain more than 14% ethanol. If it does, it must be labeled as a "dessert wine". Do any of the wines that the victim sampled need to be considered as a "dessert wine"? Explain. 3. Sometimes homemade wines are spiked with another type of alcohol. Rubbing alcohol (a.k.a. isopropyl alcohol), methanol (a.k.a. wood alcohol), and benzene are common illegal additives. Needless to say, these are toxic substances. Determine if any of the samples contained any of these substances. Explain. Below are GC graphs from experiments

Answer 1

Solution:

1. From a GC analysis chromatogram standard ethanol appeared at retention time of 3.381 min. By comparing samples of wine with standard ethanol we match retention time of standard ethanol with the ethanol contained in samples. We observed following data.

In Sample 1, a peak appeared at retention time of 3.396 min showing 9.60% of ethanol

In Sample 2 a peak appeared at retention time of 3.392 min showing 16.58% of ethanol

In Sample 3 a peak appeared at retention time of 3.390 min showing 8.54% of ethanol

In Sample 4 a peak appeared at retention time of 3.384 min showing 6.28% of ethanol.

2. In Sample 2, 16.58% of ethanol is detected Since alcohol content in sample 2 is more than 14%, thus this sample is considered as a "dessrde wine".

3. In Sample 3, a peak at retention time of 3.471 min a new peak appeared which matching with the retention time of isopropyl alcohol. Thus, this wine sample is a home made wine.

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