Simple and sensitive online detection of triacetone triperoxide explosive

Specifically coated high frequency quartz microbalances (200 MHz) were used to investigate a novel sensor system for the detection of TATP (triacetone triperoxide). By combination of differently coated quartz microbalances, it is possible to distinguish TATP in a small test set versus chemically related compounds. The highest discrimination of TATP towards other compounds was achieved with a coating of a phenylene dendrimer. This coating and the high fundamental frequency lead to comparably low limits of detection (1 ppm in a laboratory system) as well as rapid sensor response times.