Proximal Detection of Traces of Energetic Materials with an Eye-Safe UV Raman Prototype Developed for Civil Applications

Sensors

Roberto Chirico²  Salvatore Almaviva²  Francesco Colao²  Luca Fiorani²  Marcello Nuvoli²  Wenka Schweikert⁴  Frank Schnürer⁴  Luigi Cassioli¹  Silvana Grossi¹  Daniele Murra³  Ivano Menicucci²  Federico Angelini²  Antonio Palucci² 

[1] Italian Air Force, Comando Logistico, 1^Divisione, Centro Sperimentale Volo, Reparto Armamento, Via di Pratica di Mare 45, Pomezia (Rome) 00040, Italy;ENEA, FSN-TECFIS-DIM, Via E. Fermi 45, Frascati (Rome) 00044, Italy;ENEA, FSN-FUSPHY-SAD, Via E. Fermi 45, Frascati (Rome) 00044, Italy;Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer-Strasse 7, Pfinztal 76327, Germany;

关键词: explosives;    Raman Spectroscopy;    proximal detection;    laser;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s16010008

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

A new Raman-based apparatus for proximal detection of energetic materials on people, was developed and tested for the first time. All the optical and optoelectronics components of the apparatus, as well as their optical matching, were carefully chosen and designed to respect international eye-safety regulations. In this way, the apparatus is suitable for civil applications on people in public areas such as airports and metro or railway stations. The acquisition software performs the data analysis in real-time to provide a fast response to the operator. Moreover, it allows for deployment of the apparatus either as a stand alone device or as part of a more sophisticated warning system architecture made up of several sensors. Using polyamide as substrate, the apparatus was able to detect surface densities of ammonium nitrate (AN), 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene (TNT), 3-nitrooxy-2,2-bis(nitrooxymethyl)propyl] nitrate (PETN) and urea nitrate (UN) in the range of 100–1000 μg/cm² at a distance of 6.4 m using each time a single laser pulse of 3 mJ/cm². The limit of detection calculated for AN is 289 μg/cm². AN and UN provided the highest percentages of true positives (>82% for surface densities of 100–400 μg/cm² and fingerprints) followed by TNT and PETN (17%–70% for surface densities of 400–1000 μg/cm² and fingerprints).

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.