Desorption characteristics of uncoated silicon microcantilever surfaces for explosive and common nonexplosive vapors

L A Pinnaduwage; T Thundat; A Gehl; S D Wilson; D L Hedden; R T Lareau

doi:10.1016/j.ultramic.2003.11.006

Desorption characteristics of uncoated silicon microcantilever surfaces for explosive and common nonexplosive vapors

Ultramicroscopy. 2004 Aug;100(3-4):211-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2003.11.006.

Authors

L A Pinnaduwage¹, T Thundat, A Gehl, S D Wilson, D L Hedden, R T Lareau

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physics, University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6123, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA. llp@ornl.gov

PMID: 15231312
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2003.11.006

Abstract

We measured the desorption of explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), and hexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) vapors from piezoresistive silicon microcantilevers under ambient air. Depending on the amount of vapor loaded on the cantilever, TNT desorption took a few minutes to tens of minutes (for nanogram quantities). On the other hand, no significant loss of PETN or RDX was observed after many hours. We also measured desorption of common "nonexplosive" compounds (water, acetone, and ethyl alcohol) and observed that desorption was too fast to be measured. There is a good correlation between the desorption time and the melting point (or the vapor pressure) of a particular substance. In principle, this method can be used to measure desorption rates of various substances from cantilever surfaces.