Government agencies across the globe continuously evaluate security equipment, which is employed in Drugs and Explosives detection applications. Security equipment can be broadly divided into two categories: ‘bulk’ detectors such as metal detectors or X-Ray scanners, which rely on the presence of a significant amount of a material; and ‘trace’ detectors, such as ‘sniffer’ systems, which detect the presence of minute quantities of a threat material which may remain after handling illicit materials.
Trace detectors are used for explosives detection at locations such as airports, stadia or public buildings, and for drugs detection at ports of entry or in nightclubs. Whether the need be for the detection of drugs, explosives or even chemical warfare agents, the authorities must determine the efficacy of the various solutions proposed to address terrorist or criminal threats. To do this, governments must undertake tests to determine the limit of detection of the equipment proposed to a range of target analytes.
Recent work by Tam et al of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has advocated the use of the ‘Scentinel’ system to massively reduce the time required to obtain results. Government bodies like the CBSA regularly conduct hundreds of experiments to understand the performance of the expanding number of trace detectors available commercially. New iterations of existing designs, not to mention urgent requirements to study new drugs or explosives that may come to light, exacerbate the number of experiments required.
The CBSA paper concluded that the Scentinel system desorber is highly efficient for a range of explosives, and that the results it produces are quantitative (i.e. the instrument response is directly proportional to the amount of explosive present). The CBSA confirmed that the analysis undertaken by the Scentinel takes a few minutes compared to the many hours required for conventional analysis and that no sample pre-treatment is required (no solvents, no derivatisation, or filtration).
Mass Spec Analytical Scentinel SystemThe Scentinel is designed and manufactured by Bristol based Mass Spec Analytical Ltd. The instrument is based on an ABSciex triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer, which has been modified to incorporate a thermal desorption sample inlet system. The device simply heats samples to evaporate the compounds of interest, and draws the vapour into the mass spectrometer for analysis.