Shruti Karnik
Chemical detection of explosives in soil for locating buried landmines.
Karnik, Shruti; Prabhu, Radhakrishna
Authors
Professor Radhakrishna Prabhu r.prabhu@rgu.ac.uk
Professor
Contributors
H. Bouma
Editor
Professor Radhakrishna Prabhu r.prabhu@rgu.ac.uk
Editor
R. J. Stokes
Editor
Y. Yitzhaky
Editor
Abstract
Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is a highly explosive nitroaromatic compound that is used for military and terrorist activities such as the development of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), landmines and is the main charge or explosive in most of the anti-personal and anti-vehicle mines. Different chemicals/ contaminants associated with TNT in soils near buried land mines comprise the microbial transformation products of TNT (2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene [2-Am-DNT] and 4-amino-2,6-dinitrotoluene [4-Am-DNT]), manufacturing impurities of TNT (2,4-DNT, 2,6-DNT, and 1,3-DNB), and TNT. Time, cost, and casualties associated with demining have necessitated the demand for improved detection techniques with reduced false positives by directly detecting the explosive material, rather than casing material of mines. Different analytical methods used to detect trace level of explosives in soil include ion mobility mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) that require samples to be collected from hazardous sites to laboratories. This is extremely unsafe, time consuming, involve large and expensive instrumentation cost and specially trained staff. Thus, detecting chemical signatures of these nitroaromatics in soil infected with these chemicals due to leaked TNT mines can provide location of landmines/ landmine prone zones to aide humanitarian demining process. This paper illustrates soil analysis for explosives and selected contaminants by Raman spectroscopy as a chemical, nondestructive, remote sensing method. As with advancement of Raman-based standoff detection techniques, field-portable instruments and UAV deployable probes, this technique can be effectively employed in detecting buried landmines based on specific chemical signatures of target analyte. In this present study, TNT-based nitroaromatic was assessed in contaminated soil samples using Raman spectroscopy, where uncontaminated soil was used as background and matrix for spiking target contaminants at different concentrations.
Citation
KARNIK, S. and PRABHU, R. 2021. Chemical detection of explosives in soil for locating buried landmines. In Bouma, H., Prabhu, R., Stokes, R.J. and Yitzhaky, Y. (eds.) Proceedings of the 5th Counterterrorism, crime fighting, forensics, and surveillance technologies conference, part of the 2021 SPIE Security + defence conference, 13-17 September 2021, [virtual conference]. Proceedings of SPIE, 11869. Bellingham, WA: SPIE [online], article ID 118690A. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2601741
Presentation Conference Type | Conference Paper (published) |
---|---|
Conference Name | 5th Counterterrorism, crime fighting, forensics, and surveillance technologies conference, part of the 2021 SPIE Security + defence conference |
Start Date | Sep 13, 2021 |
End Date | Sep 17, 2021 |
Acceptance Date | May 31, 2021 |
Online Publication Date | Sep 12, 2021 |
Publication Date | Oct 5, 2021 |
Deposit Date | Dec 13, 2021 |
Publicly Available Date | Dec 13, 2021 |
Publisher | Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Series Title | Proceedings of SPIE |
Series Number | 11869 |
Series ISSN | 0277-786X ; 1996-756X |
Book Title | Counterterrorism, crime fighting, forensics and surveillance technologies V |
ISBN | 9781510645820 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2601741 |
Keywords | Landmines; Nitroaromatic explosives; Raman spectroscopy; Remote sensing; TNT |
Public URL | https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1534257 |
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