Metavanadate phosphors with adjustable fluorescent colors for enhancing the development of latent fingerprints

The application of fluorescent powders to latent fingerprints development can enhance the contrast and minimize background interference, resulting in high-quality fingerprint images. In this study, two metavanadate phosphors, CsVO 3 and RbVO 3 , were successfully prepared via solid-state methods, and their fluorescence properties were investigated. When employed for latent fingerprints detection, both CsVO 3 and RbVO 3 exhibited well-defined and distinct papillary ridges of the fingerprint patterns with clear detailed features on various objects with different background interferences, including impermeable substrates, semipermeable materials as well as permeable paper. Additionally, the color of the visualized fingerprint images could be adjusted from yellow to green by changing the wavelength of ultraviolet light from 365 nm to 254 nm, demonstrating greater adaptability and flexibility of CsVO 3 and RbVO 3 . Overall, both powders exhibited remarkable sensitivity, selectivity, and contrast with minimal background interference, revealing the potential of CsVO 3 and RbVO 3 for latent fingerprints development.