Detection of explosives by positive corona discharge ion mobility spectrometry.

In this work, thermal decomposition has been used to detect explosives by IMS in positive polarity. Explosives including Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), Cyclo-1,3,5-Trimethylene-2,4,6-Trinitramine (RDX), 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2,4-Dihydro-5-nitro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (NTO), 1,3,5,7-Tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX), have been evaluated at temperatures between 150 and 250 degrees C in positive polarity in air. Explosives yield NO(x) which causes NO(+) peak to increase. Additional peaks may be used to identify the type of explosive. The limit of detection for RDX, HMX, PETN, NTO, and TNT were obtained to be 1, 10, 40, 1000, and 1000 ng, respectively.