Abstract
The vapour pressure of most explosives is very low. Therefore, the
explosive trace detection is very difficult. To overcome the problem,
concentration units can be applied. At the Institute of Optoelectronics
MUT, an explosive vapour concentration and decomposition unit to operate
with an optoelectronic sensor of nitrogen dioxide has been developed. This
unit provides an adsorption of explosive vapours from the analysed air and
then their thermal decomposition. The thermal decomposition is mainly a
chemical reaction, which consists in breaking up compounds into two or
more simple compounds or elements. During the heating process most
explosive particles, based on nitro aromatics and alkyl nitrate, release
NO2 molecules and other products of pyrolysis. In this paper, the most
common methods for the NO2 detection were presented. Also, an application
of the concentration and decomposition unit in the NO2 optoelectronic
sensor has been discussed.
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