Recent progress of fluorescent materials for fingermarks detection in forensic science and anti-counterfeiting

[Display omitted] •Importance of fluorescent materials in fingerprint, and anti-counterfeiting.•Significance of surface/substrate in fingermark detection.•Current applied methods for identification of latent fingermarks.•Future challenges in enlargement of fluorescent base nanomaterials in detection of fingermarks, and anti-counterfeiting. This review summarized the applied techniques and applied nanomaterials (NMs) for the progress of latent fingerprints (LFPs) images on several surfaces. Used numerous types of NMs and their benefits along with their quality of the LFPs images on the porous and non-porous substrates. Several conventional techniques used for the examining of FPs pictures such as physical (powder dusting), chemical (cyanoacrylate, ninhydrin, AgNO3, fluorescent dye, etc.), and instrumental (gas chromatography, Raman scattering, Fourier transform infrared, etc.) have been discussed and gradually compromised their disadvantage in the current forensic science demand such as high contrast, good visualization, high sensitivity & selectivity, minimized auto-fluorescent, and low toxicity. The benefits and experimental results conducted by the researchers on various kinds of metal, metal oxides, plasmonic NPs, fluorescent NPs (conjugated polymer NPs, quantum dots(QDs), nonmetallic NPs, mesoporous silica NPs, and lanthanide (Ln3+) NPs, etc.) for the expansion of LFPs images on dissimilar surfaces. Despite the use of NPs in forensic sciences for the detection of LFPs pictures, the main emphasis is on luminescent Ln3+-NPs/ upconversion (UC) NPs. These luminescent Ln3+NPs/ UCNPs can produce more contrast, high visible, highly sensitive, selective, long-life decay imaging pictures of LFPs on different substrates (porous and non-porous) with minimized toxicity, which is lacking in most of the traditional fluorescent NMs. Therefore, this review provides a comprehensive a systematic overview of current trends on LFPs imaging development in forensic sciences. Currently, more studies are required to develop the most efficient, high-performance, surface-functionalized, highly biocompatible, and nontoxic Ln3+ NPs/ UCNPs for the recognition of LFPs images on different surfaces.