METIS

At a time when terrorist threats have continued to grow, researchers have worked to develop several innovative sensors where the combined research of sensitivity and selectivity has been favored. With regard to the detection of explosives, a difficulty concerns the great diversity of the available compounds whether they are industrial or home-made. The aim of the METIS project is to propose an alternative and a novel approach able to detect and discriminate the presence of explosives or specific markers. This involves probing the vapor pressures of a set of targeted molecular species representative of the presence of explosives in the millimetre-wave spectral band which provides an excellent resolution (discriminating character) by probing their rotational spectra . To achieve this goal we will use a recent technical development of the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of the Atmosphere (LPCA) which has been the subject of a patent application with high potential for technology transfer.Considering the civil or military targets of terrorists, METIS is by nature a DUAL project that follows the very encouraging results by the laboratories LPCA from Dunkirk and Physics Lasers, Atoms and Molecules (PhLAM) from Lille which have succeeded for the first time in recording, solving and analyzing the high-resolution rotational spectrum of mononitrotoluene taggant (NT) at room temperature with the association of preliminary microwave experiments at low temperature to determine the lower energy rotational states; measurements at room temperature using a versatile spectrometer based on a frequency multiplication chain and modeling tools to predict and analyze spectra (quantum chemistry calculations, specific Hamiltonians ...). To go further in this type of study and respond to economic, social and security issues, the METIS project aims to initiate a detection system capable to detect, discriminate and quantify gas traces of explosives taggants. in a complex mixture.To achieve this goal, we aim: to measure and analyze the millimeter-wave spectra of the most used taggants including heavier and less volatile species (DNT, DMNB, ...); to gain several orders of magnitude in terms of sensitivity by increasing the rotational absorption intensities; to automatize the measurement and the analysis of dense spectra mixing the spectral signatures of numerous molecular species and finally, to demonstrate the taggant detection in a realistic sample in an institute authorized to handle explosives. This research project brings together three partners with complementary skills and expertise associated with an observer member: the LPCA, specialized in the development of experimental and theoretical tools for gas trace metrology in the THz domain, the PhLAM laboratory, expert in modeling and spectroscopy of complex molecular structures in the gas phase, the pyrotechnic laboratory of the Saint Louis Institute (SLI) specialized in the handling of explosives and the SATT-Nord to study the potential of technology transfer and maturation. This consortium proposes a 36-month project in which, on the one hand, experimental rotational spectroscopy and quantum chemistry calculations will be used to create a new database of millimeter- wave, high-resolution rotational signatures of the main explosive taggants and on the other hand, to create an ultra-sensitive instrument accompanied with a spectral taxonomy program. The ability to detect gas traces of explosive taggants on a pre-established mixture will be demonstrated in the SLI with our partners experts in energetic material handling.