A low-cost, portable optical explosive-vapour sensor
Date
06/2017Keywords
Metadata
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Abstract
Humanitarian demining requires a broad range of methodologies and instrumentation for reliable identification of landmines, antipersonnel mines, and other explosive remnants of war (ERWs). Optical sensing methods are ideal for this purpose due to advantages in sensitivity, time-of-response and small form factor. In this work we present a portable photoluminescence-based sensor for nitroaromatic vapours based on the conjugated polymer Super Yellow integrated into an instrument comprising an excitation LED, photodiode, Arduino microprocessor and pumping mechanics for vapour delivery. The instrument was shown to be sensitive to few-ppb concentrations of explosive vapours under laboratory conditions, and responds to simulated buried landmine vapour. The results indicate that a lightweight, easy-to-operate, lowcost and highly-sensitive optical sensor can be readily constructed for landmine and ERW detection in the field, with potential to aid worldwide efforts in landmine mitigation.
Citation
Gillanders , R N , Samuel , I D W & Turnbull , G A 2017 , ' A low-cost, portable optical explosive-vapour sensor ' , Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical , vol. 245 , pp. 334-340 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2017.01.178
Publication
Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0925-4005Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017, Elsevier. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at www.sciencedirect.com / http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2017.01.178
Description
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under agreement no 284747. IDWS acknowledges a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Data supporting this research can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.17630/5868c89a-7019-4897-9c54-24ccc551a6e6.Collections
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