Improvement of Explosive Detection with a Fluorescent Sensor Using a Heating Device

There is a strong demand for a fast and reliable detection of explosives because of their use in most terrorist attacks. Chemical sensors, especially fluorescent ones, seem to fill the need in terms of reliability, cost and handling ability. In this paper, the detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (RDX or hexogen) using a heating device of the particles was studied. Two fluorescent sensitive materials were compared: diimine [1] and polycarbosilane functionalised with pyrene moieties at 50% (PCS-Py-50%) [2]. Both materials were shown to be sensitive to TNT and RDX vapours. The PCS-Py-50% material was the most promising for the detection of RDX because of a higher kinetics of interaction.