A Microcalorimeter Integrated With Carbon Nanotube Interface Layers for Fast Detection of Trace Energetic Chemicals

Detection of trace explosives is still a challenging task because of the extremely low vapor concentrations. This paper reports a new microcalorimeter for detection of trace explosives with low detection limit and fast detection rate. The microcalorimeter consists of a suspended micromembrane with integrated heaters and thermistors and a carbon nanotube (CNT) interface layer in-situ synthesized on the membrane surface. Due to the large surface areas, the CNT interface layer improves adsorption to target chemical molecules. By operating the microcalorimeter in differential scanning calorimetry mode and differential thermal analysis mode, trace chemical detection is achieved through heating the adsorbed chemicals to deflagration and measuring the induced thermal response features and the total heat. The microcalorimeter is verified by explosive detection, and an equivalent limit of detection of 2.6 pg has been achieved by extrapolating the measurement results. Theoretically, detection is distinguishable upon 10-s fast exposure to saturated explosive vapors. These preliminary results demonstrate the ability of the microcalorimeter in detection of trace energetic chemicals.