Identification of Explosive Substances Through Improved Signals Obtained by a Portable Raman Spectrometer

The development of devices to detect explosive substances in situ with characteristics such as easy portability, simple operation, and quick response is of high interest nowadays. Raman spectroscopy meets most of these requirements, allowing for the identification of volume and trace amounts of an unknown substance. In this paper we report the characterization of explosive substances such as ANFO and pentolite, both in their pure forms as well as mixed with other substances, such as sugar and sodium hydrogen carbonate, using a portable Raman Enwave Optronics EZRaman-model M, whose signal is sent and received by a head coupled to an optical fiber. The obtained spectra have been validated by comparison with those obtained by a conventional Raman spectrometer with high resolution. We discuss the advantage of using miniaturized laptops running with a 785-nm laser, making a correction of the signal response to obtain optimized spectral fingerprints with minimum noise, in order to design an autocalibrated, easily portable device that performs the function of identification of the mentioned substances.