CLPEX Chat Board

https://www.forensicmag.com/596793-Rese ... hased-Out/

I've spoken with Robert Ramotowski about this a few years ago and I haven't done much follow-up. Has anyone looked at replacements for this solution? I don't want to wait three years for this research team to come up with a solution.

A quick google search shows this product as a replacement that doesn't appear to have all of the hazards that Novec solution does:

https://www.brulin.com/product/solvanta ... novec-7100

Wonder if it's time to start looking for alternatives...

This was the first I had heard of it.

Also, did a search for alternatives to HFE-7100, and there looks like there are quite a few companies that advertise a chemical that can replace it.

A few years back, we did a comparison study of some different Ninhydrin formulas, and found a heptane formula (borrowed from what Virginia Department of Forensic Science had at the time) that seemed to be comparable to our HFE formula. We didn't test though how it handled different types of inks.

But we use HFE in most of our porous reagents, (DFO, IND, ZnCl, NIN, Thermal Paper Destaining Solution), so we will either have to find an alternative to HFE-7100 or find comparable formulas using different reagents for all of our porous processes.

We had a chance to experiment with SolVantage® Final Rinse. We had no issues with it. I seemed to perform just as well as HFE7100. Did not do a full study. Still working with it. About $500.00 a gallon. The distributor gave us a gallon to work with.

We have recipes using acetone, petroleum ether, and HFE7100. Okay, yeah the top shelf stuff might not be available much longer but the well mixes are effective enough.

I might have said it before but in Toronto in the early 1990's we were using Vertrel XF very successfully to replace HFE.
It had the advantage of not discoloring thermal paper too badly and it did not cause inks to run.
The only disadvantage was that it required good PPE.