{"id":50156,"date":"2025-07-16T17:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/?p=50156"},"modified":"2025-11-13T12:29:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:29:54","slug":"speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/inquiring-minds\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Speeding the Fight Against Chemical Weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>To destroy chemical weapons, scientists first need to understand how these hazardous substances break down. Using safer substitutes, Johns Hopkins materials scientists have developed a way to use advanced imaging technology to track the decomposition of surrogate chemicals in real time\u2014a step toward effective protection from these deadly agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their Polygonal Rotating Mirror Infrared Spectrometer, or PRiMIRS, can detect changes in the CWA simulant diisopropyl methyl phosphonate (DIMP) within milliseconds of exposure to combusting metal powders that produce heat. Their findings appear in the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.aip.org\/aip\/rsi\/article\/95\/12\/125102\/3323720\/Development-of-a-dual-spectroscopic-system-to?searchresult=1\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pubs.aip.org\/aip\/rsi\/article\/95\/12\/125102\/3323720\/Development-of-a-dual-spectroscopic-system-to?searchresult=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Review of Scientific Instruments<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNeutralizing DIMP with metallic powders happens in less than a second, so we needed to develop a system that could measure very quickly,\u201d says team member Preetom \u201cRuku\u201d Borah, a graduate student. \u201cOur spectrometer captures information more than a thousand times per second.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the guidance of advisor <a href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/faculty\/timothy-weihs\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/faculty\/timothy-weihs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tim Weihs<\/a>, professor of materials science and engineering and director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/hemi.jhu.edu\/mseeura\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/hemi.jhu.edu\/mseeura\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Materials Science in Extreme Environments<\/a> University Research Alliance, Borah and colleagues designed PRiMIRS to track molecular changes in infrared light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They do this by reflecting the light off a series of mirrors to capture rapid decomposition in real time. A polygonal rotating mirror moving at 33,000 rotations per minute allows for precise wavelength separation, revealing DIMP\u2019s breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fully customizable system can be adapted to study other chemical agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 CONNER ALLEN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tracking the decomposition of hazardous substances in real time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"issue":[42],"class_list":["post-50156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inquiring-minds","issue-spring-2025"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Speeding the Fight Against Chemical Weapons - Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/inquiring-minds\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Speeding the Fight Against Chemical Weapons - Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tracking the decomposition of hazardous substances in real time.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/inquiring-minds\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-16T21:05:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-13T17:29:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Untitled-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1256\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Wiznitzer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Wiznitzer\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8fea0e9d76ea4fd7f190559580c45e41\"},\"headline\":\"Speeding the Fight Against Chemical Weapons\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-16T21:05:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-13T17:29:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":226,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Untitled-2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Inquiring Minds: Student Discovery\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine\\\/inquiring-minds\\\/speeding-the-fight-against-chemical-weapons\\\/\",\"name\":\"Speeding the Fight Against Chemical Weapons - 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