DMDNB, or also DMNB, chemically 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane, is a

volatile organic compound Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that have a high vapour pressure at room temperature. High vapor pressure correlates with a low boiling point, which relates to the number of the sample's molecules in the surrounding air, a ...

used as a

detection taggant A taggant is any chemical or physical marker added to materials to allow various forms of testing. Physical taggants can take many different forms but are typically microscopic in size, included at low levels, and simple to detect. They can be u ...

for

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

s, mostly in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where it is virtually the only such taggant in use.

Dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

s are very sensitive to it and can detect as little as 0.5

parts per billion In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantities, e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction. Since these fractions are quantity-per-quantity measures, they ...

in the air, as can specialised

ion mobility spectrometer Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is an analytical technique used to separate and identify ionized molecules in the gas phase based on their mobility in a carrier buffer gas. Though heavily employed for military or security purposes, such as detect ...

s. Its presence allows more reliable

explosive detection Explosive detection is a non-destructive inspection process to determine whether a container contains explosive material. Explosive detection is commonly used at airports, ports and for border control. Detection tools Colorimetrics & automate ...

References

Explosive chemicals {{DEFAULTSORT:Dmdnb Nitro compounds Explosive detection