Miniature Nitro and Peroxide Vapor Sensors Using Nanoporous Thin Films

With the increased and continuous threat of terrorist attacks in public areas, new sensors are required to safeguard the public from homemade explosive devices. Current commercial sensors for explosive vapors are high-cost, bulky equipment, not amenable to mass production, thus limiting their widesp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE sensors journal Vol. 16; no. 24; pp. 8767 - 8774
Main Authors Blue, Robert, Thomson, Neil, Taylor, Stewart J., Fletcher, Ashleigh J., Skabara, Peter J., Uttamchandani, Deepak
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 15.12.2016
Subjects
Chemical sensors
Explosive sensors
Explosives
Microsensors
Nanoporous materials
nanoporous polymers
nitro-group
peroxides
Polymers
Sensors
Thin films
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Summary:With the increased and continuous threat of terrorist attacks in public areas, new sensors are required to safeguard the public from homemade explosive devices. Current commercial sensors for explosive vapors are high-cost, bulky equipment, not amenable to mass production, thus limiting their widespread deployment within society. We are conducting research on polymer-based microsensors that can overcome these limitations. Our devices offer an approach to the realization of low-cost sensors that can readily be placed as a network of electronic sentinels that can be permanently located in the areas of public access. The polymers are chemically tailored to have a high affinity for nitro and peroxide vapors and are grown electrochemically on microelectrodes. Novel nanoporous polymer-based sensors are demonstrated with a detection level of 200 ppb of nitro vapors. In addition, a prototype reversible sensor for peroxide vapors is demonstrated to low ppm concentrations.
ISSN:1530-437X
1558-1748
DOI:10.1109/JSEN.2016.2559442