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Landmines have become a problem and a daily risk in approximately 70 countries. There exists a broad variety of types of mines in which trinitrotoluene (TNT) is mostly used as the main explosive charge. TNT has a number of specific properties that make it a nearly ideal explosive for military applications. There are several methods currently used to detect buried landmines. The goal of this work is develop new methods for detecting TNT in contact with soil and sand. Raman microscopy is used to provide information about identity, composition, molecular orientation or crystal formation in very small samples or small heterogeneities in large samples. The possible interactions of the energetic material with sand particles have been studied by quantitative vibrational spectroscopy. Ambient conditions that may affect the spectroscopic signature of the explosive in contact with soil were also studied. Among the parameters investigated were: Sand-TNT mass ratio, temperature, pH of soil, incidence of UV light and water content. The characteristic bands of TNT are not significantly shifted, but rather appear constant with respect of the characteristic band of Si-O in sand (~464 cm-1).© (2005) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. |
