London, Jan 24 (ANI): German scientists have come up with a system that can sniff out terrorists by capturing the smell of explosives. The artificial nose promises to make it much easier to detect the explosive triacetone triperoxide.
The device could be installed in the doorways of buses, trains and airports. It would sound an alarm if someone carrying TATP crosses the threshold. Waldvogel and his colleagues have developed a detector that responds instantly to TATP in the atmosphere. At its heart are three quartz rods, each 3 millimetres long and 40 micrometres wide, which are made to vibrate by applying an alternating voltage.
Any TATP in the air bonds to chemicals coating the rods, causing their resonant frequency to change. The rods are coated with different chemicals - phenylene dendrimer, cyclodextrin and sodium cholate - and each changes its rod's resonant frequency in a different way. It is the combination of three changes that reveals TATP's presence.
In tests, the device was able to discriminate between the explosive and similar gases, sensing it at levels of 1 part per million.
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