US EPA

1573468 

Journal Article 

Detection of TNT in acetone using Raman spectroscopic signature - art. no. 662219 

Xiaofeng, W; Shengli, C; Jiankun, Y; Jichun, Tan; Honghui, Jia; Hongwei, Yin; Xiujian, Li; Guanliang, P 

2008 

Unk 

Proceedings of SPIE
ISSN: 0277-786X
EISSN: 1996-756X 

SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING 

BELLINGHAM 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PHOTO-OPTICAL INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERS (SPIE) 

6622 

62219-62219 

WOS:000254728700044 

The detection of explosive agents is becoming more
important and receiving much greater emphasis for homeland defense. Raman spectroscopy is a well
established tool for vibration spectroscopic analysis and can be applied to the field of
explosives identification and detection. The major bands of the Raman spectroscopy of industrial
TNT (Trinitrotoluene, CH3C6H2(NO2)(3)) are analyzed and seven prominent peaks, that is 1616.9cm
(-1)( C=C aromatic stretching vibration), 1533.9cm(-1) (NO2 asymmetric stretching vibration),
1360.1cm(-1)(NO, symmetric stretching vibration), 1210.5cm(-1)(C6H2-C vibration), 822.9cm(-1)
(nitro-group scissoring mode), 792.3cm(-1)(C-H out-of-plane bend), and 326.7cm(-1)( framework
distortion mode) are used to identify the TNT. The Raman spectroscopes of TNT solved in acetone
at different mass ratios are studied, and the TNT in the solution can be detected correctly
according the relative distance, intensity, and peak area of the seven peaks. The TNT prominent
peaks appear clearly in high level solution (the mass ration of TNT and acetone is more than 1:
10). With the decrease of TNT concentration in solution, the signature of TNT becomes more and
more weak. The low detection limit of TNT is limited by the noise of the instrument (NXR FT-Raman
accessory module with Nicolet 5700 FT-IR spectrometer is used for our experiments. The low
detection limit in our experiments is mass ratio 1:200, which is about 4mg/mL). The prominent
peak heights are discussed in consideration of the TNT concentration. Taking one of the
acetone's peaks (1716.9cm(-1)) as the internal standard line, the relative height of the
prominent TNT peaks is almost proportional to the concentration of the TNT in the solution. A
fitting curve for the relations of prominent peak height according to the concentration is
proposed with multinomial fitting method, which can be used to analyze the concentration of TNT
more accurately. 

explosives detection; TNT; Raman spectroscopy 

Zhou, L; 

978-0-8194-6764-5 

International Conference on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging 

Beijing, PEOPLES R CHINA