A new chemical process which involves joining platinum with other elements could be used as the basis for a new technique to monitor explosives in public places.

David Rauh, president of EIC Laboratories, believes the new chemical fabrication technique using platinum could help to build sensors for airports and battlefields which would locate the presence of bomb threats including liquid explosives, reports Technology Review.

Researchers from Hewlett-Packard and the University of California have recently discovered a new method of coating nanowires with platinum.

The results, which are to be published in an upcoming online issue of Nano Letters, means a platinum coating can be applied to nanowires which have been initially formed by depositing rare-earth metals on a silicon crystal.

Regina Ragan, one of the team's researchers and a professor of chemical engineering at the university, said that at certain levels of platinum application the metal formed in clumps, with part of the wire uncoated.

After manipulating the wire, the researchers identified solid platinum particles eight nanometres across – a fabrication technique which Mr Rauh maintains could be used in the detection of explosives if transferred to gold and silver nanoparticles.

A process known as Raman spectroscopy – in which the scattering of monochromatic light reveals which type of material is present – could harness this technology, Mr Rauh says, in order to distinguish the 'signature' of a particular chemical, making it a useful application for substances, even including liquid-based explosives.

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