CHAPTER 10: Point-of-need and Portable Miniaturized Devices for Forensic Chemical Sensing

This book chapter briefly describes the relevance and main contribution of portable and miniaturized methods for forensic scenario, highlighting various types of detectors and platforms commonly used. From traditional equipment employed for the identification of (bio)chemical trace evidence such as mass, Raman, and NIR spectrometers, whose instrumental advances enabled their miniaturization and portability; to conventionally portable and low-cost devices such as colorimetric, electrochemical, microchip and paper-based analytical devices. A wide range of forensic applications is presented, critically discussed and some remarkable considerations for future studies are pointed out.