(Page 2 of 2)
The company is working with MIT professor of material sciences Yoel Fink to further improve the clarity of the detectors' signal by making it easier to distinguish from background noise. Fink, who has created hollow fibers that can guide light much better than the glass tubes currently used, has also incorporated light detectors directly into fibers. A device that combines these features could "offer a huge simplification in instrumentation, making these almost ubiquitous," Rose says. In the future, soldiers could carry fibers designed to detect a variety of substances. The company is also developing polymers for detecting a variety of toxic industrial chemicals. A bundle of fibers could be used to detect more than one substance at a time.
It remains unknown whether ICx Nomadics's liquid-explosives-detection technology will ultimately result in the federal government lifting restrictions on taking bottled water and other liquids through airport security. "That's up to the TSA," Kelly says.
An explosives detector that uses luminescent polymers is being field-tested in Iraq.
Single-stranded DNA can be used to identify explosives and other airborne compounds.
My question is how is someone going to go on a plane with strong smelling chemicals (acetone and HCl) and use these in a mix without someone noticing it, form TATP in a reasonable amount of time (usually takes 24 hours to form enough to do any damage), and then filter the solid from the liquid solution and dry it (usually takes another 24 hours) all in the few hours they are on a plane? Also if they say TATP that means it has to be formed at low temperature to obtain the tricyclo isomer so they are going to need an ice bath or refrigerator. If they do this reaction at room temperature it will form faster in a few hours but you are getting DADP which is a dicyclo isomer and much more unstable, but this still doesn’t change the fact that it needs dried before it can be used as an explosive.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
This document is part of the “How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements” centralized resource portal. This tutorial provides a detailed guide for measurement and device considerations to take temperature measurements using thermocouples. Get an introduction to thermocouples, which are inexpensive sensing devices widely used with PC-based data acquisition systems. Also review some specific thermocouple examples and learn how thermocouples work and ways to integrate them into a data acquisition measurement system.
View full PDF >
Listen to story > 
Our list of the 50 most innovative companies, including the following:
On Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Feed
iddo
4 Comments
Detecting TATP explosives
This is not the first technology to be able to identify TATP - this article covers the subject in-depth:
http://www.tfot.info/content/view/92/
Reply