Detection of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT) using gravure printed surface enhancement Raman spectroscopy (SERS) flexible substrate

Abstract

In this work, gravure printing was used to fabricate a thin film of silver (Ag) nanoparticle ink on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet as an efficient surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate. The printed SERS substrate was used for the detection of an explosive organic compound: 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), in vapor phase. An enhancement factor of four, in the intensity of the Raman spectrum of DNT vapor, was observed when compared to target molecules absorbed on bare PET. An increase in temperature, from 25 • C to 65 • C, demonstrated an 85 % decrease in the intensity of the Raman signal. The results obtained show the capability of the printed SERS substrate to be used in applications for the detection of explosive organic compounds.

Sensitive and specific detection of explosives in solution and vapour by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy on silver nanocubes

“…19,20 For instance, Emamian et al fabricated a substrate consisting on AgNPs 'ink' on a sheet of polyethylene terephthalate for detection of DNT from the vapour phase. 21 Another study by Tamane et al demonstrated vapour phase detection of nitro-explosives by using AgNPs on Si where they enclosed the substrate in a sealed tube with explosive simulant at thermodynamic equilibrium. 22 They concluded that desorption and decomposition of TNT in the vapour phase hindered detection by SERS, as they observed SERS enhancement after 10 seconds followed by a decreasing signal intensity over time with splitting of several key Raman bands.…”

High sensitive setup of gold nanorods substrates for explosives detection using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

“…For explosives detection using SERS technique, great number of substrates have been fabricated, provided a various enhancement factors. These substrates include noble metal, semi-conductors and hybrids of metallic-semiconductor substrates [18][19][20][21][22]. However, most of the high efficient enhancement for explosives among all were obtained on metallic substrates that is due to the poor vapor pressure of explosives compared to other probe such us dyes, thus explosive molecules require strong mechanism to enhance their Raman signals, and that can be achieved by electromagnetic mechanism which can be mainly obtained by using nobel-metal substrates such as gold or silver [23,24].…”