Abstract
Detecting trace amounts of explosives to ensure personal safety is important, and this is possible by using laser-based spectroscopy techniques. We performed surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) using plasmonic nanogap substrates for the solution phase detection of some nitro-based compounds, taking advantage of the hot spot at the nanogap. An excitation wavelength of 785 nm with an incident power of as low as ≈0.1 mW was used to excite the nanogap substrates. Since both RDX and PETN cannot be dissolved in water, acetone was used as a solvent. TNT was dissolved in water as well as in hexane. The main SERS peaks of TNT, RDX, and PETN were clearly observed down to the order of picomolar concentration. The variations in SERS spectra observed from different explosives can be useful in distinguishing and identifying different nitro-based compounds. This result indicates that our nanogap substrates offer an effective approach for explosives identification.
Highlights
Kim, M.; Noh, D.; Oh, E.; Lee, D.Explosive materials typically contain nitro compounds such as nitroaromatics (TNT), nitramines (RDX), and nitrate esters (PETN)
We report on the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection of three nitro-based explosives (TNT, RDX, and PETN) by employing our Au nanogap substrates
Boundary conditions were set to perfectly matched layers (PMLs), and the light source used for the simulation was total field/scattered field (TFSF)
Summary
M.; Noh, D.; Oh, E.; Lee, D.Explosive materials typically contain nitro compounds such as nitroaromatics (TNT), nitramines (RDX), and nitrate esters (PETN). Nitro compounds are commonly used for various military and civil purposes such as weapons and landmines, explosives for mining purposes, and as agricultural fertilizers. These compounds are often hazardous to both humans and environments, and it is very important to find ways for the fast detection of these chemicals [1,2]. While the Raman technique typically suffers from low sensitivity due to the limited number of scattered photons, SERS offers greatly amplified signals by several orders of magnitude [14,15]. The location of the maximum electric field is called a hot spot [16], and the signal from an analyte molecule located at the hot spot can be substantially amplified
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