Bengaluru: A team of scientists at the Bengaluru-based Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has designed a portable sensor that can detect trace amounts of explosives in seconds—a development that could change the way India conducts security checks at airports, metro stations, and crowded public spaces.
Scientists Jil Rose Perutil, S. Prashanth, Channabasaveshwar V. Yelamaggad, Pavan Nukala, and Neena S. John from CeNS achieved this breakthrough in technology. Unlike sniffer dogs or imported scanners, which are expensive, maintenance-heavy, or prone to errors, the CeNS device is compact and rugged, delivering a molecular-level “fingerprint” of explosives almost instantly.
Security experts say it could provide India with an affordable home-grown alternative to foreign technologies and help plug critical gaps in counter-terrorism preparedness.
Why explosives sensors matter
India has witnessed multiple bombings in crowded places over the last two decades—from the 2008 serial blasts in Bengaluru to the coordinated explosions at Delhi markets the same year and Pune’s German Bakery attack in 2010.
Each incident exposed how easy it is to target public spaces, and how stretched the country’s security apparatus often is. Despite tighter policing since then, large transit hubs, such as airports, metro stations, and railway junctions, continue to depend heavily on sniffer dogs, sporadic manual swabs, and outdated baggage scanners.
Experts say a fast, accurate, and affordable explosives sensor could significantly reduce risks at such vulnerable choke points.
A practical shift for Indian security
For decades, India’s security infrastructure depended on a combination of sniffer dogs, chemical swabs, and bulky spectrometers. Each comes with quite significant drawbacks—dogs tire easily, spray kits often flag harmless substances, and spectrometers, like RaIDer-X, need complex calibration and fail to detect trace amounts.
The new CeNS explosives sensor, which uses a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platform, promises to overcome these challenges. A laser beam scans the surface of clothing, baggage, or vehicles, with the returning spectrum analysed in real time. No swabbing, spraying, or preparation is required.
Possible use cases stretch across India’s security landscape, with benefits expected at all airports under the Airports Authority of India, when mounted at boarding gates for non-contact trace checks, railways and metro stations, when integrated into baggage scanners and metal detectors, and for paramilitary forces, such as the Border Security Force (BSF) or Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), when deployed as handheld devices at borders or checkpoints, etc.
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Faster, sharper, more reliable
The key advantage lies in speed and specificity. Unlike conventional methods, Raman-based detection works in seconds. A molecular “spectral fingerprint” rules out false alarms while the sensor design— reduced graphene oxide (rGO), silver nanoparticles (Ag), and cerium oxide (CeO₂) used to make it—stabilises the sensor in India’s varied climatic conditions.
In its official release statement, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Bengaluru quoted: “Researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have developed an innovative multi-layer nanomaterial combining the reduced graphene oxide (rGO), silver nanoparticles (Ag) and cerium oxide (CeO₂) on a glass substrate. Each layer contributes a specific function.”
“The team fabricated the composite material using physical vapour deposition techniques, resulting in a uniform and scalable sensing platform. With its excellent sensitivity, durability, and simple fabrication process, this advanced SERS substrate holds strong promise for real-world applications such as airport security and environmental pollution monitoring, where detecting chemicals quickly and accurately can make all the difference.”
How it stacks up against current systems
Traditional explosive detection systems come with a range of drawbacks. Sniffer dogs, though dependable in many situations, need rigorous training, fatigue quickly, and often produce variable accuracy.
Colourimetric sprays and swabs are prone to false positives and lack the sensitivity needed for trace detection.
Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS), currently used in some airports, is expensive, requires high maintenance, and is unreliable in humid conditions.
Even the DRDO’s RaIDer-X, despite advancements, is bulky, calibration-intensive, and ineffective at trace levels.
By contrast, the CeNS explosives sensor is far more efficient, offering molecular-level specificity and up to 1,000 times higher sensitivity than spray tests, as well as rapid trace detection at a fraction of the cost of imported IMS systems.
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How the world detects explosives
Globally, explosive detection technologies remain costly and often limited in scope. In the United States, agencies, such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Homeland Security, depend on Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) scanners, such as Smiths IONSCAN and handheld Raman devices, such as Thermo Scientific’s TruDefender—both effective but prohibitively expensive and highly sensitive to humidity.
European security agencies, including Frontex, are at the trial stage of advanced SERS-based devices under Horizon 2020 programmes, though most remain confined to laboratories due to their high costs. Israel relies on vapour detectors, IMS systems, and chemical assays from defence firms, such as Rafael and Elbit Systems, but these are heavily export-controlled.
China, meanwhile, is investing in graphene-based portable spectrometers, though the technology remains mostly proprietary and research-heavy. Against this backdrop, India’s CeNS sensor, built on a graphene–silver–cerium oxide, stands out for offering comparable sensitivity and durability at a fraction of the cost—a feature, experts say, could finally enable mass deployment across public transport networks, something foreign systems have never managed because of their prohibitive pricing.
What’s next for CeNS technology
The CeNS team is now working on pilot deployments at high-security zones, such as airports and metro stations. If adopted, the device could become part of India’s standard security architecture, not only for aviation but for public transport, industrial hubs, and even disaster-response teams.
For India, the breakthrough holds significance beyond science. It could reduce our dependence on expensive imports, providing Indian security agencies with faster tools to detect threats, and providing a Made-in-India solution, so that public spaces do not remain vulnerable targets.
ThePrint spoke to a retired Central Industrial Security Force officer.
A CISF officer who didn’t wish to be named, who has had an experience of overseeing aviation security for nearly two decades, welcomed the development but stressed the need for quick adoption.
“Every major terror incident in India has shown us that delay in detection costs lives. A sensor that works in seconds, doesn’t tire like a dog, and can be scaled across all airports and metro stations is exactly what our forces need. The government should ensure these devices don’t remain confined to labs but reach the hands of security personnel at the earliest.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)