NAZIR AHMAD FARAZ2025-12-032025-12-032019https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/15006Fingerprints are getting more and more attention in criminal justice system now a days. They are used for the criminal’s identification and are playing very vital role in crime solving. There are various methods for the development of latent fingerprints. Fingerprint powdering is very effective and traditional method. Various metal oxide powders are used for this purpose. Nanotechnology has many applications in various disciplines of forensic science. For the development of latent fingerprints, copper oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The synthesized nanoparticles were dark colored. These nanoparticles were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Diffraction (EDX) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Characterization studies proved the formation of pure nanoparticles by co-precipitation method. The size of nanoparticles determined through SEM was between 65-70 nm. The synthesized nanoparticles were applied on plastic, glass and metal surfaces with the help of fiber glass brush and produced excellent results on these surfaces. They also developed the latent prints on ceramic surface but result was not as good as on metal, glass and plastic. Their dark color produced very good contrast on the light colored surfaces, which is a very important factor in fingerprint development. Good contrast provides better view of friction ridges on the substrate. Another very important surface particularly used in the terrorist activity is the sticky side. These nanoparticles were also used to develop the latent prints on the sticky sides of the tapes by making its suspension in azflo solution and water but it could not develop the prints on these tapes. Further research is needed in order to make these particles also useful for sticky side of the tapes.enThesis