Ultratrace analysis of gas phase explosives and chemical weapons agents is critical for many homeland security, law enforcement, customs and military applications.  In particular, a critical need exists for trace level explosive detection in large volume air samples. Usually, non-selective capture is used for concentrating target organic signatures from large volumes of air. However, this approach has the problem of concentrating matrix interferences along with the analyte of interest.

This technology provides a means of selectively capturing specific explosives or chemical warfare agents using metal ß-diketonate polymer materials. These materials are deposited onto a suitable sampling structure to selectively capture explosive or chemical warfare agent compounds on the sampling structure so that they can more readily be detected using a variety of known analytical techniques, including  chromatography and/or mass spectrometry. The materials may also be used to construct a capillary column into which samples can be directly infused for highly selective chromatography detection. The technology has been demonstrated to selectively improve the detection of a wide variety of explosives and would be useful for other important chemical classes (i.e., chemical warfare agents).