New instrument covertly detects signals from illicit chemicals
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ARGONNE, Ill. (August 31, 2007) – A new award-winning innovation developed
at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory can covertly
detect chemical plumes at great distances and may help thwart future chemical
or nuclear-based terrorist attacks. The technology has a number of other uses,
as well, from detecting environmental pollution to determining the extent
of tissue damage in burn victims without physical contact.
Passive millimeter-wave spectroscopy (PmmWS) was pioneered by
Sami Gopalsami, Sasan Bakhtiari, Paul Raptis and Thomas Elmer, all of Argonne's
Nuclear Engineering Division. The technology has the capacity to identify chemical
plumes at ranges of up to a few kilometers and at concentrations as low as
100-1000 ppm. This new technology was recently recognized with one of the 2007
R&D
100 awards, colloquially known as the “Oscars
of invention.”
The Argonne team designed PmmWS primarily to monitor chemical signatures emitted
by processing facilities suspected of unauthorized nuclear activity. Certain
chemical fingerprints can identify factories involved in the enrichment and
reprocessing of nuclear materials and their use in weapons production.
The researchers' ability to collect remote data passively, like using an infrared
camera, as opposed to actively, like using radar, provides a significant improvement
over other chemical detection equipment. “The main concern is that there should
be nothing to intercept,” said Gopalsami. “If you are my adversary, you can
just put up some sort of receiver and see that I'm looking at you.”
“That was the number one requirement – you do not want to be transmitting
any signal,” Bakhtiari added.
This new detection technology possesses several other advantages over other
forms of chemical sensing. Previous remote sensing instruments for terrestrial,
as opposed to astronomical, use had lower ranges of detection (ranging from
10 m to 100 m), were susceptible to interference from clouds and other atmospheric
phenomena, and cost significantly more than PmmWS. Compared to it predecessors,
the Argonne system is also safer and offers better selectivity – that is, it
can identify a particular molecule instead of just a molecular functional group.
This passive remote-sensing spectrometer represents the second R&D 100
award-winning invention in millimeter-wave technology for the Gopalsami-led
team. In 1996, the magazine recognized Gopalsami, Bakhtiari and Raptis for
a millimeter-wave imager that could detect flaws in fabric during weaving.
The design of that instrument provided part of the basis for their new product.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology.
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic
and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne
researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities,
and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific
problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for
a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed
by UChicago
Argonne, LLC for
the U.S.
Department of Energy's Office
of Science.
For more information, please
contact Eleanor Taylor (630/252-5510 or media@anl.gov)
at Argonne.
Story by Jared Sagoff.
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