Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for selected energetic material detection

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy is an important technique for explosive detection. However, the output spectra are sometimes ambiguous and not strong enough to be analysed. In this work, Surface-Enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for energetic materials detection was achieved by using in situ impregnated silver nanoparticles in the membrane substrate. The substrates used in SERS were characterised by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) for elemental analysis. Three substrates were used, all of which were impregnated with silvernanoparticles. The first substrate (A) received no coating, while the other two substrates (B and C) were coated on one side only with a polymer epoxy layer with a thickness of 0.01 mm and 1 mm, respectively. The three different substrates were used for the detection of an energetic material, TNT, by Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectrum of TNT using the impregnated substrate without any coating (A) showed an enhancement in the results compared to the epoxy-coated substrates (B and C). Hence, substrate A can be used for energetic materials detection.