Screening technology based on DMS as an effective tool to help protect public and vital infrastructure from threats

In the past few years terrorism became one of the biggest threat for the public life and that why in now days one of most important civilization problems is to guarantee safety for the civilians. Most often occurring form of terrorism is usage of explosives, which result is definitely greater number of casualties per year than in case of use biological, chemical or even radiological substances. Explosives for the reason that are easy to reach, have wide and specific range of use, belong to the group of substances widely used in military operations as well as in acts of terrorism. Because of this it is crucial to effective and fast detection even in traces amount, what is directly connected with necessity providing analytical apparatus using technical novelties. There are many known techniques used for explosives detection but diverse places and ways of their use as well as requirement of really low detection limit allowing for detection on the “dog´s nose” level are reason for their continues improvement. One of the methods used for detection of traces amount of explosives is differential ion mobility spectrometry (DMS) which allows for detection of very low concentration analyzed substances. In Military Institute of Chemistry and Radiometry was made portable contamination signaling device (PRS-1) used for detection and identification wide range of chemical substances. PRS-1 was constructed based on the technique of gluing ceramic tiles and technology of depositing sensor electrodes on them. It is designed for the detection of chemical warfare agents, and initial testing of the detection explosives yielded positive results and form the basis for the concept of further research. Innovative solutions applied to the device PRS-1 cause that its technical parameters are very high - one of the best in the world.