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Updated: Jan 28, 2026

Research and Development of High-performance Explosives
Published on: February 20, 2016
Sensing and Discrimination of Explosives at Variable Concentrations with a Large-Pore MOF as Part of a Luminescent
Monika Jurcic1, William J Peveler2, Christopher N Savory1
1Department of Chemistry , University College London , 20 Gordon Street , London WC1H 0AJ , U.K.
Abstract:
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown great promise for sensing of dangerous chemicals, including environmental toxins, nerve agents, and explosives. However, challenges remain, such as the sensing of larger analytes and the discrimination between similar analytes at different concentrations. Herein, we present the synthesis and development of a new, large-pore MOF for explosives sensing and demonstrate its excellent sensitivity against a range of relevant explosive compounds including trinitrotoluene and pentaerythritol tetranitrate. We have developed an improved, thorough methodology to eliminate common sources of error in our sensing protocol. We then combine this new MOF with two others as part of a three-MOF array for luminescent sensing and discrimination of five explosives. This sensor works at part-per-million concentrations and, importantly, can discriminate explosives with high accuracy without reference to their concentration.
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