Photoacoustic spectroscopy of standard explosives in the MIR region

An emerging and important topic of interest in the field of homeland security is the identification and quantification of explosives. This paper brings new elements in the Laser Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (LPAS) based characterisation of some classical explosives (2,4-DNT; 2,6-DNT; HMX; TATP; PETN) in solid phase at CO2 laser wavelengths, not yet reported in the literature to our knowledge. Moreover, we report our LPAS analysis of TNT and RDX, already previously studied with the same technique in the same spectral interval by different authors. The reported photoacoustic signals from standard commercial samples of the classical explosive substances were recorded in the 9–11 μm region, by a CO2 laser based homemade optical apparatus. The underlying experimental activity was performed in the molecular spectroscopy laboratory of the ENEA Research Centre in Frascati.