Low Cost High-rate Manufacturing of Flexible Explosive Detection Sensor

Nanotrons Corporation, in collaboration with Professor Byungki Kim at NSF Nanomanufacturing Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), proposes to develop the low-cost high-rate manufacturing technique for flexible explosive detection sensors to significantly increase sensitivity of detection of trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosives. The new approach combines cutting-edge nanomaterial development and manufacture at Nanotrons with the extensive experience in sensors and detector and nanomanufacturing within the UML team. By dispersing chemically converted graphene into interdigitated electrode arrays, novel explosive-material detection sensors will be fabricated. The resulting sensors can detect very low concentrations of vapor components of TNT such as nitrogen oxides (NO2) and 2,4,-dinitrotoluene (DNT) indicating their ideal application for threat detection (i.e., suicide bomb, roadside bomb, and landmines) sensors. Nanotrons’ proposed sensors can be economically manufactured on flexible polymeric substrates by using large-scale and low-cost roll-to-roll production processes. The production of these sensors also can be monitored and controlled in real time using integrated in-line quality assurance system. Additionally, since these sensors can detect chemical warfare agents (i.e., HCN, CEES, DMMP) and ammonia gas (NH3), their application can be extended to many military and commercial gas detection applications. This Phase I will demonstrate the feasibility of our proposed approach.