Luminescence Materials as Nanoparticle Thermal Sensors

Particles could be used to record critical temperature history data during agent-defeat weapons testing.

Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

The purpose of this research program was to create and study novel luminescence particles (phosphors} capable of sensing and retaining the time-temperature information to which they were exposed, therefore acting as nano- and microsized thermosensors. The thermometric property is the latent thermoluminescence (TL) signal associated with electron/hole pairs trapped at defect energy levels, which are differently affected by the environmental temperature.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) mission of combating WMD includes the research and development of Agent Defeat Weapons (ADW) capable of destroying chemical and biological agent facilities and stockpiles with minimum collateral damage, particularly avoiding the dispersion of viable agents to the environment. High-temperature produced by slow-burning incendiary materials is one of the kill mechanisms investigated to neutralize different types of agents, including dry spores, vegetative cells, viruses, toxins and chemical agents. One of the obstacles on advancing the research on new types of energetic materials and mechanisms of biological agent neutralization, however, is the inability of current technology to measure the entire time-temperature profile of very small particles in extreme conditions.