Structural Characterization of the Forensic Sodium Rhodizonate Test for Lead.
- 1Department of Chemistry and Molecular Design Institute, New York University, New York City, New York10003, United States.
- 2Department of Structure Analysis, Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 818200, Czech Republic.
Abstract
The forensic sodium rhodizonate test is used to detect lead in gunshot debris. Areas of interest are sprayed with a sodium rhodizonate solution followed by a tartrate buffer solution of pH 2.8, producing a deep red compound indicative of lead and other metals. A confirmatory hydrochloric acid spray produces a violet color specific to lead. The associated chemical transformations of the insoluble lead rhodizonate complexes have not been specified. Lead rhodizonate, lead rhodizonate tartrate, and lead rhodizonate chloride coordination polymers were synthesized from dilute solutions of sodium rhodizonate and lead nitrate in water, tartrate buffer, and HCl buffer. Nanoparticles of the precipitates were analyzed by three-dimensional electron diffraction (3D ED). A crystal, Pb24+(C6O6)2-Cl22-·3H2O, was characterized in the space group R3̅m (a = 8.0708(3) Å, c = 16.576(3) Å), with rhodizonate layers bidentately coordinated to three lead ions, offset by ca. 0.05 Å from the rhodizonate planes. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance revealed the presence of a single axial lead site in the nitrate precipitate, a distribution of lead sites in the lead rhodizonate tartrate precipitate, and three distinct sites in the lead rhodizonate chloride precipitate, suggesting other Pb compounds in the bulk coexisting with the 3D ED product.
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BibTeX
@article{kukucka2026structural,
title = {{Structural Characterization of the Forensic Sodium Rhodizonate Test for Lead.}},
author = {Alex Kukucka and Devin W Thrush and Trent A McHenry and Markéta Jarošová and Talaidh Isaacs and Anabelle Bahadur and Jan Rohlíček and Michelle Segura and Alexander G Shtukenberg and Petr Brázda and Bart Kahr and Claudia E Avalos},
journal = {Inorganic chemistry},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6c02536},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42916903},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Structural Characterization of the Forensic Sodium Rhodizonate Test for Lead.
AU - Alex Kukucka
AU - Devin W Thrush
AU - Trent A McHenry
AU - Markéta Jarošová
AU - Talaidh Isaacs
AU - Anabelle Bahadur
AU - Jan Rohlíček
AU - Michelle Segura
AU - Alexander G Shtukenberg
AU - Petr Brázda
AU - Bart Kahr
AU - Claudia E Avalos
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Inorganic chemistry
DO - 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6c02536
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42916903
AB - The forensic sodium rhodizonate test is used to detect lead in gunshot debris. Areas of interest are sprayed with a sodium rhodizonate solution followed by a tartrate buffer solution of pH 2.8, producing a deep red compound indicative of lead and other metals. A confirmatory hydrochloric acid spray produces a violet color specific to lead. The associated chemical transformations of the insoluble lead rhodizonate complexes have not been specified. Lead rhodizonate, lead rhodizonate tartrate, and lead rhodizonate chloride coordination polymers were synthesized from dilute solutions of sodium rhodizonate and lead nitrate in water, tartrate buffer, and HCl buffer. Nanoparticles of the precipitates were analyzed by three-dimensional electron diffraction (3D ED). A crystal, Pb24+(C6O6)2-Cl22-·3H2O, was characterized in the space group R3̅m (a = 8.0708(3) Å, c = 16.576(3) Å), with rhodizonate layers bidentately coordinated to three lead ions, offset by ca. 0.05 Å from the rhodizonate planes. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance revealed the presence of a single axial lead site in the nitrate precipitate, a distribution of lead sites in the lead rhodizonate tartrate precipitate, and three distinct sites in the lead rhodizonate chloride precipitate, suggesting other Pb compounds in the bulk coexisting with the 3D ED product.
SN - 0020-1669
SN - 1520-510X
ER -