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Studies of Pyrolysis Products of Explosives in Soils using Infrared Tunable Diode Laser Detection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

J. Wormhoudt ,
J. H. Shorter  and
C. E. Kolb
J. Wormhoudt
Affiliation:
Aerodyne Research, Inc., 45 Manning Road, Billerica, MA 01821
J. H. Shorter
Affiliation:
Aerodyne Research, Inc., 45 Manning Road, Billerica, MA 01821
C. E. Kolb
Affiliation:
Aerodyne Research, Inc., 45 Manning Road, Billerica, MA 01821
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Abstract

We report on laboratory studies of the thermal decomposition of TNT under a variety of conditions. Our goal is a better understanding of the soil contamination detection technique used in site characterization using cone penetrometers, in which hot filament pyrolysis results in small gaseous molecules, such as NO, which can be detected by a variety of methods to indicate the presence of explosives in the soil. Our laboratory studies use a long-path sampling cell and tunable infrared diode laser absorption, which provide sensitive, specific, time-resolved detection of several of the key decomposition products. In this paper, we present both the initial results of laboratory experiments on mixtures of soil and TNT, designed to simulate the operation of a cone penetrometer probe, and also results of a series of heated tube experiments which serve to relate the first type of experiment to previously reported TNT decomposition studies.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 418: Symposium GG – Decomposition, Combustion, and Detonation Chemistry of Energetic Materials , 1995 , 143
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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References

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