skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Apparatus for thermally evolving chemical analytes from a removable substrate

Patent ·
OSTI ID:1174349

Method and apparatus suited to convenient field use for heating a porous metallic substrate swiped on the surface of an article possibly bearing residue of contraband or other target chemical substances. The preferred embodiment of the device includes means for holding the swiped substrate between electrodes bearing opposite electrical charges, thereby completing an electrical circuit in which current can flow through the porous metallic substrate. Resistance causes the substrate to heat, thus driving adherent target chemicals, if present, into a space from which they are carried via gas flow into a detector such as a portable IMS for analysis.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
Assignee:
Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
Patent Number(s):
6,572,825
Application Number:
09/410,976
OSTI ID:
1174349
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English