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Anal Chem. 2015 Sep 15;87(18):9494-9. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02773. Epub 2015 Aug 24.

Chip calorimetry for the sensitive identification of hexogen and pentrite from their decomposition inside copper oxide nanoparticles.

Analytical chemistry

Karine Bonnot, David Doblas, Fabien Schnell, Laurent Schlur, Denis Spitzer

Affiliations

  1. Nanomatériaux pour les Systèmes Sous Sollicitations Extrêmes (NS3E), UMR 3208 CNRS/ISL/UNISTRA, French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis, 68301 Saint-Louis, France.
  2. Institut de Sciences des Matériaux de Mulhouse, CNRS UMR7361, CNRS, 15 rue Jean Starcky, Mulhouse 68057, France.

PMID: 26272107 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02773

Abstract

Smart detection systems for explosive sensors are designed both to detect explosives in the air at trace level and identify the threat for a specific response. Following this need we have succeeded in using microthermal analysis to sensitively identify and discriminate between RDX and PETN explosive vapors at trace level. Once the explosive vapor is trapped in a porous material, heating the material at a fast rate of 3000 K/s up to 350 °C will result in a thermal pattern specifically corresponding to the explosive and its interaction with the porous material. The explosive signatures obtained make it possible to simultaneously identify the presence and the nature of the explosive vapor in just a few milliseconds. Therefore, this also allows the development of multitarget devices using porous material for capturing the vapor combined with microthermal analysis for fast detection and identification. So far it is the first time that chip calorimetry has been used to characterize and identify explosives in vapor state.

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