Explosive Detector Inspired From Silkmoth's Antennas Developed

A team from the "Nanomatériaux pour Systèmes sous Sollicitations Extrêmes" unit (CNRS / Institut Franco-Allemand de Recherches de Saint-Louis), along with the Laboratoire des Matériaux and Surfaces et Procédés pour la Catalyse (CNRS / Université de Strasbourg), have developed a super efficient explosive detector inspired by silkmoth's antennas. Fabricated of  a  200-micron long and 30-micron wide silicon micro-cantilever having about 5,00,000 lined up titanium dioxide nanotubes, this device can detect masses of trinitrotoluene (TNT) of approximately 800 ppq, i.e., 800 molecules of the explosive per 10^15 molecules of air, thus bettering the thousand fold limit achievable presently.

#-Link-Snipped-#
Credit: © Fabien Schnell/NS3E

This novel concept may also be employed to dig up drugs, toxic agents and specks of organic pollutants. This is by far the most advanced explosive detection we've got, and scientists are already considering it for detecting other kinds of explosives too, like pentrite, that poses a grat threat in Europe.

Replies

You are reading an archived discussion.

Related Posts

Poets have bowled us over through the years with their expression of romance in the rain. And we definitely tend to love the rain for the aroma and the sound...
Presently, when a person asks us to scan and mail them a document, what we send him/her is a photograph of the document via our phone, isn't it? But most...
Nintendo releasing a product information ahead of the keynote is not new, but it still caught us unaware when the company announced that they'll be streaming a pre-E3 Nintendo Direct...
Balance studio has come up with a new ring-shaped Mp3 speakers formulated of recycled paper pulp, that shouts out you music directly off the desk. After the really awesome Paper...
Softbank has entered the smartphone market with the Pantone 5 107SH as its first offering. This smartphone boasts of a bult-in Geiger counter. The radiation detector is user-friendly and can...