Explosive-contaminated land poses a hazard both to the environment and to human health. Microbial enzymes, either in their native or heterologous hosts, are a powerful and low-cost tool for eliminating this environmental hazard. As many explosives have only been present in the environment for 10 years, and with similar molecules not known in Nature, the origin of enzymes specialized for the bre...

The sensing and differentiation of explosive molecules is key for both security and environmental monitoring. Single fluorophores are a widely used tool for explosives detection, but a fluorescent array is a more powerful tool for detecting and differentiating such molecules. By combining array elements into a single multichannel platform, faster results can be obtained from smaller amounts of ...

Clustering is experimentally and theoretically verified during the complicated processes involved in heating high explosives, and has been thought to influence their detonation properties. However, a detailed description of the clustering that occurs has not been fully elucidated. We used molecular dynamic simulations with an improved reactive force field, ReaxFF_lg, to carry out a comparative ...

A simple method combing Mn(2+) doping with a hierarchical structure was developed for the improvement of thin-film sensors and efficient detection of the explosives relevant to improvised explosive devices (IEDs). ZnS hierarchical nanospheres (HNs) were prepared via a solution-based route and their sensing performances were manipulated by Mn(2+) doping. The responses of the sensors based on ZnS...

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) measurements of some common military explosives were performed with a table-top micro-Raman system integrated with a Serstech R785 miniaturized device, comprising a spectrometer and detector for near-infrared (NIR) laser excitation (785 nm). R785 was tested as the main component of a miniaturized SERS detector, designed for in situ and stand-alone sens...

The toxicity of conventional nitroaromatic explosives like 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) is caused by their enzymatic free radical formation with the subsequent oxidative stress, the formation of alkylating nitroso and/or hydroxylamino metabolites, and oxyhemoglobin oxidation into methemoglobin. In order to get an insight into the mechanisms of toxicity of the novel explosives NTO (5-nitro-1,2,4-...

In this article, we report the successful preparation of a Mg-based luminescent MIL-53 metal-organic framework (MOF), namely [Mg2(BDC)2(BPNO)]·2DMF (1) (BDC = 1,4-benzene dicarboxylate, BPNO = 4,4'-dipyridyl-N,N'-dioxide, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide) in a mixed solvent containing a 2 : 3 volume ratio of DMF and ethanol (EtOH) under solvothermal conditions. Desolvated compound 1a can be used as ...

This article presents design issues of high-sensitive laser absorption spectroscopy systems for nitrogen oxides (NO(x)) detection. Examples of our systems and their investigation results are also described. The constructed systems use one of the most sensitive methods, cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS). They operate at different wavelength ranges using a blue--violet laser diode (4...

RATIONALE Fast methods that allow the in situ analysis of explosives from a variety of surfaces are needed in crime scene investigations and home-land security. Here, the feasibility of the ambient mass spectrometry technique desorption atmospheric pressure photoionization (DAPPI) in the analysis of the most common nitrogen-based explosives is studied. METHODS DAPPI and desorption electrospra...

Abstract In order to study the influence of metastable intermolecular composite (MIC) materials on internal implosion properties thermobaric explosive, calorimetric bomb and closed chamber were used measure detonation heat, quasi-static pressure energy impulse five explosive formulations containing different MIC materials. Compared with traditional aluminized warm compressed explosives, release...