Super-Sensitive Spray-On Explosive Detector

esocid writes "US scientists have designed a new spray-on explosive detector sensitive enough to detect just a billionth of a gram of (nitrogen-containing) explosive. After treatment, the explosive glows blue under UV light, making the detector perfect for use in the field. The silafluorene-fluorene copolymer can detect explosives at much lower levels than existing systems because it detects particles instead of explosive vapors, and is able to show the difference between nitrate esters (trinitroglycerin) and nitroaromatic explosives (TNT). The team is currently working on a similar system to detect peroxide-based explosives and say they hope to be able to investigate perchlorates and organic nitrates, too."

Comments

Re:will it cut down the line at the airport?

[PeeAitchPee]

Security Theater is just that -- a system designed to placate the public that "something is being done" by giving the perception that it's safe to fly. But a certain number of guns, knives, and God knows what else still make it through every day.

You cannot have truly secure airport security without going Israeli-style (i.e., checkpoints a mile away from the terminal, multiple interviewers asking you about your trip and then comparing notes, open pretty much EVERY bag and asking the passengers about the contents, etc.). Yes -- I've flown internationally thru Ben Guiron Airport in Tel Aviv and checking in for the flight back to the States took about 3 hours (and this wasn't even El Al -- it was Continental). It's incompatible with the current American expectation of not being racially profiled and of getting thru security within 20 minutes.

Re:how about glycerin

[Atraxen]

You've fallen into the most common problem non-chemists have when reading about chemistry. Glycerin is NOT the same thing as trinitroglycerin. The reactivities aren't even close, and the structures have significant differences which lead to very different behaviors. Another comment also treated household hydrogen peroxide as equivalent to all other peroxides, and assumed they would all be detected the same way (this shows the same misconception, but is accidentally more correct than the parent comment...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycerin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitroglycerin

Remember folks, if you're chemically untrained the WHOLE word is what you should be looking for (there is structural info in the name, and that helps give rise to the properties we observe, but interpreting structures into behavior is tricky even for professional chemists....) Some analogous circumstances which arise from noticing a word fragment and extrapolating.....
screw = screwdriver
son = sonogram
hill = hillary
bus = business

I'm sure there are better examples, but hopefully I've made the point.

Re:DOS attack

[Hojima]

I don't think it'll be used to detect what contains an explosive or not. It's too sensitive for that, and dogs could probably do a better job. I think this would be for post examination of an explosion, or to determine the composition of a bomb that needs deactivation and assessment (RTFA). Even cleaning products could set it off, so it'll be used in an occasion where people know that there is/was an explosive.

Re:Nitrogen

[Z00L00K]

And if you buy it in commercial quantities it starts to get useful for blowing things up! But anyway - a lot of things are explosive. A tablespoon of petrol in a large barrel is sufficient for a good bang. It's just the question of getting the mixture right.

And I also heard about two boys playing and they got hold of an inner tube for a tractor. They filled it with gas from a gas welder and added a long fuse. They nearly cracked all windows in the village they lived - and they did get a beating by their father afterwards...

And overheated water boilers are fine too! Just watch that episode on Mythbusters...

Re:Won't this create a lot of false positives?

[3waygeek]

And let's not forget all the heart disease patients -- lots of them take nitrates. I take one nitrate drug (Imdur) daily, and occasionally take nitroglycerine; the latter would, practically by definition, set off any sensitive explosive detector.