Applications of Nanotechnology in Forensic Science: A Comprehensive Review

Nanotechnology is reshaping forensic science with new techniques that are faster, more sensitive, and more precise. Thisreview highlights how the increasing use of nanomaterials in forensic investigations improves the detection, collection,and analysis of evidence. Nanoparticles like gold, silver, zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide have improved latent fingerprintvisualization, showing clearer ridge detail even on difficult surfaces.The increasing use of nanotechnology in forensic investigations is promising and could soon be the tipping point inthe discipline. Applications mainly have been related to evidence identification and analysis, such as single-crystallinesemiconductor CdS nano slabs for explosives detection, functionalized TiO2 nanorods for organophosphorus chemicalwarfare agents in Forensic Chemistry, the use of Nanopowders for latent print visualization in and gold nanoparticleprotein nanopore for detection of single-stranded DNA in Forensic biology. In recent years, nanotechnology has also beenused to identify illegal drugs. Due to the restricted tools available for evidence analysis, these and other applications ofnanotechnology offer sensitive and selective techniques for identifying evidence, as well as quick and accurate results withfewer procedures.Nanotechnology is also being used in document authentication, postmortem interval estimation and microbial forensics.But there are challenges to overcome, standardization, cost-effectiveness and environmental impact. This review bringstogether findings from recent studies to provide a comprehensive overview of how nanotechnology is revolutionizingforensic science and outlines the steps needed to further integrate these tools into routine forensic practice.