Highly Sensitive Screening Method for Nitroaromatic, Nitramine and Nitrate Ester Explosives by High Performance Liquid Chromatography--Atmospheric Pressure Ionization--Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-API-MS) in Forensic Applications

• NCJ Number: 207700
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 49 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2004 Pages: 1171-1180
• Author(s): Xiaoma Xu Ph.D.; Anick M. van de Craats Ph.D.; Peter C.A.M de Bruyn M.Sc.
• Date Published: November 2004
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper describes the method developed for the analysis of 21 nitroaromatic, nitramine, and nitrate ester explosives, which include the explosives most often encountered in forensic science.

Abstract

In developing this analytical method, the testing lab upgraded its mass spectrometer Finnigan MAT TSQ 700 from the standard API interface to the API-2, which allows more ions to be introduced into the mass spectrometer (MS) system, thus providing higher sensitivity. The method for analyzing the 21 explosives combined 3 HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography)-API-MS systems to perform the screening, i.e. MeOH/H2O-APCI(-)-MS for the detection of the nitroaromatic explosives and MeOH/H2O/NH4Ac-ESI(-) for the other explosives, with the exception of the nitrotoluenes and MeOH/H2O/gly-APCI(+)-MS for nitrotoluenes. Compared with the screening method based on HPLC-TSP-MS previously developed by the testing lab, the new method doubled the screening range, and the sensitivity was increased by approximately a factor of 10 with the upgraded API-2 system. This method is reproducible and can be expected to become the primary analytical method for the identification of forensic explosives in postexplosion debris. 7 tables, 3 figures, and 11 references