Scientists have developed a simple sensor to detect the use of an explosive bomb in shoes.
This finding of scientists at the University of Illinois could lead to cheap, easy to use equipment for passengers and baggage at airports and elsewhere.
triacetone triperoxide (TATP) is a high explosive, which in recent years in several bombing attempts used.
The few methods available for TATP is not possible to screen for field use in airports, because they require large, expensive equipment, extensive sample preparation, or relatively high concentrations of TATP in solid or liquid form.
Sniffing Out Shoe Bombs: New
Sniffing Out Shoe Bombs: New
Kenneth Suslick of the University of Illinois, with Lin Hengwei have a colorimetric sensor array is used to quantify even very low levels of TATP vapor produced only 2 parts per billion.
To create the sensor network, print the researchers conducted a series of 16 small colored dots - each a different pigment - an inert plastic film. A solid acid catalyst breaks TATP in components detectable change in the cause of color pigments, such as litmus paper.
Each pigment color changes on the concentration of TATP in the air. The digital picture is a standard flatbed scanner or a camera cheap electronics shown before and after exposure to air.
"Imagine a sensor patch dotted sniff, can shoe-bomber explosive with your digital camera on the changing colors of the sensor for measuring spots.
The pattern of color change is a unique molecular fingerprint for TATP at a particular concentration and we can identify in seconds, "said Suslick.
The picture is especially sensitive to the TATP.
In addition to demonstrating its detection technology with a flatbed scanner normal, researchers have also developed a working prototype hand-held.
This finding of scientists at the University of Illinois could lead to cheap, easy to use equipment for passengers and baggage at airports and elsewhere.
triacetone triperoxide (TATP) is a high explosive, which in recent years in several bombing attempts used.
The few methods available for TATP is not possible to screen for field use in airports, because they require large, expensive equipment, extensive sample preparation, or relatively high concentrations of TATP in solid or liquid form.
Kenneth Suslick of the University of Illinois, with Lin Hengwei have a colorimetric sensor array is used to quantify even very low levels of TATP vapor produced only 2 parts per billion.
To create the sensor network, print the researchers conducted a series of 16 small colored dots - each a different pigment - an inert plastic film. A solid acid catalyst breaks TATP in components detectable change in the cause of color pigments, such as litmus paper.
Each pigment color changes on the concentration of TATP in the air. The digital picture is a standard flatbed scanner or a camera cheap electronics shown before and after exposure to air.
"Imagine a sensor patch dotted sniff, can shoe-bomber explosive with your digital camera on the changing colors of the sensor for measuring spots.
The pattern of color change is a unique molecular fingerprint for TATP at a particular concentration and we can identify in seconds, "said Suslick.
The picture is especially sensitive to the TATP.
In addition to demonstrating its detection technology with a flatbed scanner normal, researchers have also developed a working prototype hand-held.
