Titanium Oxysulfate as a Colorimetric Sensor for Peroxide-Based Energetic Materials

The design, development, and evaluation of a non-contact detection method for hydrogen peroxide and triacetone triperoxide has been completed using titanium oxysulfate colorimetric sensor. The investigation into the detection method involved the development of a set of software tools to evaluate the time rate of change of the color for the titanium oxysulfate sensor is presented. A commercial off-the-shelf color camera was used to capture a time series of images of the sensor while exposed to various concentrations of hydrogen peroxide.;The concentrations of hydrogen peroxide ranged up to 30wt% to determine the range of color changes for the titanium oxysulfate sensor over an exposure period of 2 hours, with images captured at one minute time intervals. The captured images contain information about the affects on the visible light spectrum from the sensor's color change. Analysis of the spectrum information revealed the color change of the sensor preferentially absorbs the shorter wavelengths of the visible light spectrum.;This non-contact detection method is demonstrated for hydrogen peroxide and was successfully applied to various weights of triacetone triperoxide. The sensor is capable of detecting the vapors of hydrogen peroxide within 5 minutes of exposure, while detection of triacetone triperoxide vapors occurred within 6--7 minutes of exposure. The effective rate of color change of the sensor with triacetone triperoxide is comparable to the effective rate of color change of the sensor with 20wt% hydrogen peroxide. The lower detection limits for titanium oxysulfate are concentrations of 8.4 * 10-9 g/cm3 for hydrogen peroxide and 1 * 10-6 g/cm 3 for TATP.;Keywords: Hydrogen Peroxide, Titanium Oxysulfate, Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP).