Plasma electron spectroscopy in short glow discharge for registration of vapors and decomposition products of crystalline salts

Abstract

The possibility of using plasma electron spectroscopy (PLES) as a practical method for the detection and identification of crystalline impurities of salts: silver salts, as well as ammonium salts, used in explosives and dangerous substances is shown. To create a prototype of the PLES detector, relatively simple technical solutions are adopted. The source of excitation of metastable atoms is a short DC glow discharge. For analysis, probe scheme for registering electric current from an auxiliary additional electrode probe is used when scanning the retarding electric potential. As a result of a series of experiments, the possibility of detecting products, cathode sputtering, and decomposition of ammonium and silver salts was shown. In particular, peaks from ammonia, nitrogen oxide, silver, and chlorine were recorded.