The new portable device was developed by a lab at the University of Tasmania in Australia with support of the country’s government, Chemical and Engineering News reported. According to the report, the lab “developed instrumentation and chemistry to identify inorganic explosives before and after detonation in less than 60 seconds. The technique is based on capillary electrophoresis.”
A sample is collected by swabbing a suitcase or other object in question. Then “the investigator dissolves it and then injects the solution into a capillary filled with a flowing electrolyte solution under the influence of a strong, applied electric field,” the article said. As the sample’s ions move past a conductivity detector, the researcher identifies the ions based on their charge and the amount of time it took them to travel through the capillary.
The project will continue through mid-2012, and the researchers are working with an engineering company to create an interface for security personnel.
The prototype for the wireless sensor that can detect trace amounts of ammonia is being developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. According to DesignNews, the sensor and its antenna can be printed on paper-like material using standard inkjet technology. The device runs off thin-film batteries and sends an alert when it detects ammonia.
"IEDs are a very pressing problem. A lot of military personnel and civilians are losing their lives," Krishna Naishadham, a principal research scientist who is leading the work at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, told DesignNews. "The sensors being used are expensive or require special training. We had the idea of producing something low-cost, so you could spread these in the field."
Because ammonia can be found from other sources, the device will need to be able to filter its responses to remove naturally occurring gases.
