Explosives trace detector

Colorimetric detection of explosives involves applying a chemical reagent to an unknown material or sample and observing a color reaction.

This technology is found in most commercially available explosive detectors such as the GE VaporTracer, Smith Sabre 4000 and Russian built MO-2M and MO-8.

[citation needed] The presence of radioactive materials in these equipments cause regulatory hassles and requires special permissions at customs ports.

Bi-yearly[clarification needed] checks are mandatory on such equipment in most countries by regulating agencies to ensure that there are no radiation leaks.

Electrospray ionization, mobility analysis (DMA) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is used by SEDET (Sociedad Europea de Detección) for the “Air Cargo Explosive Screener (ACES)”, targeted to aviation cargo containers currently under development in Spain.

[citation needed] This technology is based on decomposition of explosive substance followed by the reduction of the nitro groups.

For example, most fertilizers have nitro groups which are falsely identified as explosives, and the sensitivity of this technology is also fairly low.

In AFP, binding of one TNT molecule results in quenching of fluorescence significantly due to the conjugated structure of the polymers.

"During its excited state lifetime, the exciton propagates by a random walk through a finite volume of the polymer film.

"[2] Once TNT, or any other electron-deficient (i.e., electron accepting) molecule comes in contact with the polymer, a so-called low-energy ‘trap’ forms.

Adoption of mass spectrometry should lower false alarms rates often associated with ETD due to the higher resolution of the core technology.