Christina Gonzalez can detect explosives with a single strip of paper.
Gonzalez, an Edmonton-based researcher, has developed a disposable test strip capable of instantly detecting explosive materials including traces of TNT, the compound used in dynamite.
While the paper strip may look like plain card stock there is more than meets the eye.
“Essentially, we have a stock piece of paper that we cut to the size we want to use,” Gonzalez said in an interview Friday with CBC Radio’s Edmonton AM.
“After we cut it, we treat it with our quantum dots.”
‘A red hue’
Thousands of quantum dots — miniscule semiconductor particles only a few nanometres in size — are embedded into each strip of paper.
Under a UV flashlight or lamp, the dots made of silicon glow with a red hue, but are prepared in the lab to fade when trace amounts of explosives are present.
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Source: CBC News