Advances in explosives analysis—part I: animal, chemical, ion, and mechanical methods

Abstract

The number and capability of explosives detection and analysis methods have increased substantially since the publication of the Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry special issue devoted to Explosives Analysis (Moore and Goodpaster, Anal Bioanal Chem 395(2):245-246, 2009). Here we review and critically evaluate the latest (the past five years) important advances in explosives detection, with details of the improvements over previous methods, and suggest possible avenues towards further advances in, e.g., stand-off distance, detection limit, selectivity, and penetration through camouflage or packaging. The review consists of two parts. This part, Part I, reviews methods based on animals, chemicals (including colorimetry, molecularly imprinted polymers, electrochemistry, and immunochemistry), ions (both ion-mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry), and mechanical devices. Part II will review methods based on photons, from very energetic photons including X-rays and gamma rays down to the terahertz range, and neutrons.

New "turn-off" fluorescence sensors to detect vapors of nitro-explosives on the basis of 4,6-bis[5-(heteroaryl)thiophen-2-yl] substituted 5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)pyrimidines

“…The solvents (1,4-dioxane and H2O) for the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction were deoxygenated by bubbling argon for 1h. 1 H and 13 C NMR spectra were recorded on an AVANCE-500 instruments using Me4Si as an internal standard. Elemental analysis was carried on a Eurovector EA 3000 automated analyzer.…”

“…In addition, many of these techniques require special equipment and/or need in pre-concentrating procedures. 13,14 On the other hand, there are a number of commercially available, portable (hand-held and stand-off) chemical detection sniffers (sensors working as an artificial dog's nose), exploiting advantage of materials, which are capable of detection of explosives through smell of these compounds. 15 «Fido X2» (weighs 680 g), «Fido X3» (weighs 1.36 kg), and «Fido NXT» (weighs 1.36 kg) from FLIR Systems Inc. (Wilsonville, Oregon, USA) 16 are the most famous lightweight, hand portable fluorescence polymer sensors for rapid detection of explosives, operating in many United States airports.…”

Advances in explosives analysis—part II: photon and neutron methods

“…Part I provides a more complete introduction to this review [1]. This part, Part II, will cover many of the newest and most capable explosives detection and analysis capabilities that use photons to interrogate the sample.…”

Application of the modified transient plane source technique for early detection of liquid explosives

“…14 Spectroscopic technologies employ mass spectrometry or infrared spectrometry to detect illicit or hazardous materials. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] These techniques are able to detect trace amounts of explosive or illicit material in vapor or as residue collected from swabs taken of luggage or a person's skin. These technologies vary greatly in principle but tend to be spot analyses rather than bulk analysis and are unable to detect materials through a barrier -thus a hermetically sealed can poses an insurmountable barrier to the test.…”