Forensic Investigation of Explosions

Evaluation of Non-Contact Sampling and Detection of Explosives using Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves

“…Among these, many have limited range of analytes and are greatly affected by human factors and sampling technique. Even though trace detectors have high sensitivity, poor sampling results in ineffectively detecting the analytes of interest [19]. Research and improvement in sampling is needed for the trace detection of explosives.…”

“…The increase in popularity of improvised homemade explosives is in consequence of the simplicity of the synthesis of many improvised explosives fabricated with common household and industrial chemicals and easy access of the instructions via the Internet, making these favorable to terrorists worldwide. [19]. Thus, improved sampling is necessary for trace detection of the analytes of interest.…”

“…Triacetone triperoxide (TATP), first discovered and prepared in 1895 by Wolffenstein [76], is one of the most common homemade explosives as a result of its relatively simple synthesis from hydrogen peroxide and acetone, two commercially available chemicals.…”

“…The creation of explosives dates back in the early 11 th century from the creation of black powder [19]. Although the origin of black powder is ambiguous, Roger Bacon was one of the first pioneers in experimenting with black powder, formulating the composition of the black powder that was used for many centuries [35].…”

“…Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is the technique typically used in high throughput environments because of fast analysis, robustness and portability making these instruments reliable in the field for explosive detection. Unfortunately, these sensitive trace detectors have shown high false positives in high clutter environments from particle swabbing and poor sampling techniques [19,30]. A novel sorbent coated disk, coined planar solid phase microextraction (PSPME), was previously developed for noncontact sampling of volatile organic compounds associated with explosives [1][2][3].…”