Detection of microscopic traces of explosive residues on textile fabrics by Raman spectroscopy

Direct or cross‐contamination of explosive residues on clothing is of high occurrence when handling explosive materials, leading to physically trapped particles between the fibres. In this work, the detection and identification of trace amounts of organic explosives, inorganic explosives,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Videira Quintela, Diogo Manuel|||0000-0002-8668-2537, Zapata Arráez, Félix|||0000-0002-7419-4632, García Ruiz, Carmen|||0000-0001-5925-3449
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Alcalá (UAH)
Repositorio:e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/47572
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10017/47572
https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jrs.5455
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:clothing textiles
confocal Raman microscopy
homemade explosives (HMEs)
trace detection
Química
Chemistry
Descripción
Sumario:Direct or cross‐contamination of explosive residues on clothing is of high occurrence when handling explosive materials, leading to physically trapped particles between the fibres. In this work, the detection and identification of trace amounts of organic explosives, inorganic explosives, and oxidizing salts trapped between the fibres of dyed and undyed synthetic and natural textile clothing fabrics were studied using two (desktop and portable) confocal Raman microscopes. The results show that, despite the contribution of the textile fabric in terms of fluorescence and vibrational bands coming from the fibres and dyes, detection and identification of the explosive/oxidizing salt particles trapped on highly interfering surfaces was possible. Limits of detection were estimated in the nanogram/picogram range depending on the explosive and fabric. However, problems involving the burning of either some explosive particles or dark cloth textiles were verified, which can cause a destruction of the sample. Also, the analysis of improvised homemade explosives (potassium nitrate mixed with 10 different fuel substances) was studied to evaluate possible interferences.