Supersensitive fingerprinting of explosives by chemically modified nanosensors arrays

Abstract

The capability to detect traces of explosives sensitively, selectively and rapidly could be of great benefit for applications relating to civilian national security and military needs. Here, we show that, when chemically modified in a multiplexed mode, nanoelectrical devices arrays enable the supersensitive discriminative detection of explosive species. The fingerprinting of explosives is achieved by pattern recognizing the inherent kinetics, and thermodynamics, of interaction between the chemically modified nanosensors array and the molecular analytes under test. This platform allows for the rapid detection of explosives, from air collected samples, down to the parts-per-quadrillion concentration range, and represents the first nanotechnology-inspired demonstration on the selective supersensitive detection of explosives, including the nitro-and peroxide-derivatives, on a single electronic platform. Furthermore, the ultrahigh sensitivity displayed by our platform may allow the remote detection of various explosives, a task unachieved by existing detection technologies. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.