Chemical Threat Point Sensors Based on Infrared Spectrophotometry and Adsorptive Preconcentrators

Abstract

This paper reports progress toward development of a fielddeployable monitor for detecting chemical threats such as chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) by their infrared (IR) spectrochemical signature. Our work has focused on development of the chemical sensor, particularly of adsorbent media for preconcentration of low concentrations of threat vapors. We prepared and tested a wide variety of fluorinated epoxy polymer films to evaluate the effects of film properties on preconcentration, response time and stability. We also identified several inorganic adsorption layers which we found to have dramatically different interactions with the DMMP compared to the polymers.