When a burglar decided to break into the home of a CSIRO scientist, he did a grave disservice to criminals everywhere.
Materials scientist Dr Kang Liang is savouring the sweet taste of revenge after going on to develop a new technique to better capture fingerprints at crime scenes.
Dr Liang was inspired to help police after watching officers use traditional fingerprint powder to dust his home in the hope of finding the culprit's sticky paw marks on a window ledge or doorway.
He later found that by adding a drop of liquid containing crystals to surfaces, investigators using a UV light are able to see invisible fingerprints "glow" in just 30 seconds.
The crystals rapidly bind to fingerprint residue, creating an ultrathin coating that's an exact replica of the print.
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The contrast the glow creates allows for higher resolution images to be taken on scene, and then run through police data bases in real time.
"When my house was broken into, and knowing that dusting has been around for a long time, I was inspired to see how new innovative materials could be applied to create even better results," Dr Liang said.
"As far as we know, it's the first time that these extremely porous metal organic framework (MOF) crystals have been researched for forensics."
The CSIRO is now looking to partner with police forces around the country, after Dr Liang's research was published in the Advanced Materials journal on Tuesday.
