The new technology is designed to aid security personnel in detecting homemade explosives, which are more difficult to detect. 

“Homemade bombs are much harder to detect,” explained Michael Breadmore, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Tasmania.

According to Breadmore, homemade explosives contain inorganic molecules like nitrates and chlorates that are not volatile. In the detection process it takes time and skill to separate these ions from a sample. But using capillary electrophoresisAustralian researchers at the University of Tasmania have developed a new method to quickly and accurately detect inorganic explosives. 

An investigator can take a sample, either by swabbing a briefcase handle or from debris after an explosion, and turn it into a solution that is then injected into a capillary filled with a flowing electrolyte solution under the influence of a strong, applied electric field.

Depending on their electrical charge and size, the sample’s ions move through the capillary at different speeds and based on this knowledge an investigator can identify the ions based on their charge and the time it took them to move through the capillary. 

Bruce McCord, a forensic scientist at Florida International University, said the new system is novel in its potential for portability as well as its “definite advantage in terms of speed.”

Researchers are currently working on way to design a user-friendly interface and hope to finish the system by mid-2012.