Handheld Raman (first defender) - Livonia Professional Firefighters

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ABSTRACTRapid, precise explosives identification is one of the central tasks ofhomeland security and public safety personnel, particularly with therecent proliferation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) worldwide.Instruments that can be used in the field to rapidly and accuratelyidentify various explosives and their precursors are integral tools forfirst responders. One such commercially available handheld Ramanspectrometer designed for chemical identification, FirstDefender, wasevaluated as a screening tool for the field identification of hundreds ofcommercial, military, homemade explosives, and explosive precursorsin situ. FirstDefender correctly, accurately, and rapidly identified 206substances (including mixtures) for an 89 percent positive identificationrate for the 231 samples presented with no false positive results. Thispaper provides an overview of Raman spectroscopy and explosivematerials, and details the methods used and results evaluated duringthe course of this explosives testing exercise. Additionally, practicalconsiderations of sampling-safety and interpretation of results (bothpure samples and samples of mixed compounds) are also discussed.Performance of a Handheld Raman Spectrometer for Explosives Identification May 2009i
Table of ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Raman Spectroscopy Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Explosives Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Evaluation Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Samples Tested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Results and Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Notable Commercial Explosive Testing Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Notable Military Explosive Testing Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Notable Explosive Components Testing Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Notable Homemade and Sensitive Explosives Results . . . . . . . . . . 10Notable Fluorescence Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Notable Dark Colored Sample Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Notable Oxidizer Sample Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Notable Mixture Analysis Results Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12About Tom Thurman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Appendix: Complete List of Samples and Results . . . . . . . . . . . 14Performance of a Handheld Raman Spectrometer for Explosives Identification May 2009ii
Page 1: Performance of aHandheld Raman Spec
Page 5 and 6: IntroductionAs a result of the decl
Page 7 and 8: and hexamethylene triperoxide diami
Page 9 and 10: The system was tested in three samp
Page 11 and 12: Examples of the positive match, mix
Page 13 and 14: Table 4 displays the results of the
Page 15 and 16: Notable Fluorescence Considerations
Page 17 and 18: About James T. (Tom) ThurmanJames T
Page 19 and 20: Screen# Sample Category Mode Color
Page 21: Screen# Sample Category Mode Color

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