Study of explosives by diffuse reflectance FT-IR spectroscopy

The infrared spectra of a number of explosives have been recorded using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. This technique will be explained and the advanatages and disadvantages of this procedure will be discussed. The spectra of a series of pentaerethritol tetranitrate (PETN) samples stored at elevated temperatures will be sued to demonstrate the usefulness of this technique. Because diffuse reflectance is surface sensitive, this technique is more sensitive to measuring changes on the surface of powdered materials than transmission techniques. This advantage of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was important in detecting spectroscopic changes in the infrared spectrum of triamino trinitrobenzene exposed to visible light. 2 refs.