Sampling and Detection of Energetic Compounds Using a Microfluidic Device and Super-Absorbent Electrospun Matrix

Hodayah Hadar Markovits, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Maor Edler, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Danny Fisher, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Yehuda Yavetz-Chen, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Valery Bulatov, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Doron Gerber, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Eyal Zussman, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Israel Schechter, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Electrospinning allows for generation of nanofibers of an enormous surface are, thus it can be effective in sampling and collecting of explosives and energetic materials.  In this study, a solution containing PDMS-PMMA and other components has been electrospun, resulting in a porous nanostructured matrix. The sampling and collection ability of the matrix has been tested for a variety of explosives.

A method for detection and identification of energetic materials on the electrospun matrix has been developed. It is based on a microfluidic device that supplies 22 colorimetric reagents at a 2D array on the matrix. The quantity of thus delivered reagents is in the pL range. This process generates a 2D array of colors that is the basis of the identification of the energetic materials. Both RGB decomposition and full UV-vis spectra of the 2D spots on the matrix were recorded and utilized. The results were analyzed using several chemometric data analysis methods, including PCA, LDA, and neural network.

The method was tested for identification of 16 energetic materials of different chemical families, such as nitroaromatics and peroxides. The neural network model successfully classified all explosives.