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A sense for landmines

Nature volume 394, pages 417–418 (1998)Cite this article

A heightened sense of smell, achieved by proxy through chemistry, offers solutions to problems where biologically based sensors are inappropriate. Detection of the TNT in landmines using fluorescent chemosensors is one example.

Writing in the Journal of the American Chemical Society1, Yang and Swager describe the evaluation of porous, shape-persistent, fluorescent polymer films that serve as chemosensors for explosives — in particular, trinitrotoluene (TNT) and its derivatives, which are commonly used in landmines. Sensors for TNT are in routine use at airports, for instance, but the technology requires sophisticated instruments and simply is not rugged enough for field use. And other ways of detecting landmines are far from ideal — dogs tire easily and, with their requirement for a full-time trainer, are expensive; ground-penetrating radar and metal detectors lack the specificity of chemical sensors and produce too many false positives.

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Figure 1

AP/D. BRAUCHLI

Figure 2: Chemistry of the prototype TNT chemosensor devised by Yang and Swager1 (top), with the geometrical relationships being depicted below.

References

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  1. Illumina Inc., 2187 Newcastle Avenue, STE 101, Cardiff, 92007, California, USA

    Anthony W. Czarnik

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Czarnik, A. A sense for landmines. Nature 394, 417–418 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/28728

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