upon the device is very advantageous in some cases the polymer may provide synergistic properties beyond adhesion such as increased chemical affinity or hydrophobicity hydrophilicity of the material to enhance performance the present invention includes thin film compositions to be utilized as an extraction or sampling device for either gas or liquid phase materials the device form factors that utilize the thin films can be specifically designed to work with existing sampler equipment currently in the field or in a laboratory environment sampling devices constructed with thin films of the present invention have high affinity and selective capture properties to targeted species that include explosives explosive variants or precursors chemical weapon agents pesticides and other volatile organic compounds vocs semi volatile organic compounds metals and radionuclides alternatively the composite thin films can be utilized in separation applications for target chemicals or chemical compounds in both liquid and gas environments for example the composite thin film devices can be used in separation applications such as carbon monoxide co separation from carbon dioxide co 2 or ethanol from water film support materials utilized include but are not limited to metal wires flexible silica coated wires plate structures silica coated plate structures cloth materials fibers or the inside of various tubular structures these support materials can be coated with various layers of the thin film to provide desired characteristics of the.