Vapour sensing of explosive materials

Abstract

The ability to accurately and reliably detect the presence of explosives is critical in many civilian and military environments, and this is often achieved through the sensing of the vapour emitted by the explosive material. This review summarises established vapour detection techniques as well as outlining recent technological developments. It starts by defining different types of explosive materials and discussing the main challenges of explosives vapour detection. This is followed by a section on animal olfaction, which is one of the most sensitive methods, and then goes on to describe methods based on the separation and detection of ions or molecules, such as gas chromatography, mass spectrometry and ion mobility spectrometry. New sensing technologies involving polymers, nanomaterials and microcantilevers are then described, followed by a section outlining how an electronic nose approach can be used to increase selectivity to different types of explosives.