Inkjet-printed silver nanoparticle paper detects airborne species from crystalline explosives and their ultratrace residues in open environment.

An electronic nose can detect highly volatile chemicals in foods, drugs, and environments, but it is still very much a challenge to detect the odors from crystalline compounds (e.g., solid explosives) with a low vapor pressure using the present chemosensing techniques in such way as a dog's olfactory system can do. Here, we inkjet printed silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on cellulose paper and established a Raman spectroscopic approach to detect the odors of explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT) crystals and residues in the open environment. The layer-by-layer printed AgNP paper was modified with p-aminobenzenethiol (PABT) for efficiently collecting airborne TNT via a charge-transfer reaction and for greatly enhancing the Raman scattering of PABT by multiple spectral resonances. Thus, a Raman switch concept by the Raman readout of PABT for the detection of TNT was proposed. The AgNPs paper at different sites exhibited a highly uniform sensitivity to TNT due to the layer-by-layer printing, and the sensitive limit could reach 1.6 × 10(-17) g/cm(2) TNT. Experimentally, upon applying a beam of near-infrared low-energy laser to slightly heat (but not destruct) TNT crystals, the resulting airborne TNT in the open environment was probed at the height of 5 cm, in which the concentration of airborne species was lower than 10 ppt by a theoretical analysis. Similarly, the odors from 1.4 ppm TNT in soil and 7.2, 2.9, and 5.7 ng/cm(2) TNT on clothing, leather, and envelope, respectively, were also quickly sensed for 2 s without destoying these inspected objects.