A fast liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QToF-MS) method for the identification of organic explosives and propellants

A systematic tandem mass spectrometric study of anion attachment for improved detection and acidity evaluation of nitrogen‐rich energetic compounds

“…Hydrogen cyanide is considerably more acidic (GPA: 1433 kJ/mol) 29 than HF, so that upon attachment, CN − is unable to abstract a proton from RDX, so no [RDX − H] − is detected; instead, a small signal for CN − is observed at m/z 26 ( Figure 4B). The acidity of acetic acid is even higher (GPA: 1427 kJ/mol), 33 rendering it impossible for acetate anion to capture a proton, but instead, decomposition leads to a rather highintensity peak for CH 3 weak CO 2 loss from the hydrogen carbonate adduct is seen at m/z 239) suggests that the GPA of RDX is quite close to that of carbonic acid (GPA: 1458 kJ/mol). 34 We were not able to detect a signal for the adduct of hydrogen carbonate with HMX, so the GPA value of H 2 CO 3 cannot be used to evaluate that of HMX.…”

Detection of Gunshot Residues Using Mass Spectrometry

“…Most MS techniques are coupled with chromatographic systems such as GC or LC. The high mass resolution of some spectrometers may avoid the necessity for full baseline separation unless isomers are present [34]. …”

“…DeTata et al applied tandem QToF-MS coupled with LC for the identification of over 50 organic explosives and propellants [34]. In comparison to QqQ systems which can be run in four different modes, the QToF-MS is commonly run either in precursor (MS) or product ion mode (MS/MS).…”

“…Analyte data including accurate mass, isotope ratios, and retention time were fed into a custom personal compound database and library (PCDL). Using this library, samples could be rapidly screened followed by further identification using the MS/MS precursor and product ion data [34]. APCI gave superior performance for analysis of OGSR in comparison to other ionization techniques.…”

Flow injection analysis of organic peroxide explosives using acid degradation and chemiluminescent detection of released hydrogen peroxide

“…Schulte-Ladbeck et al [3] proposed RP HPLC with on-line Fourier transfom infrared (FTIR) detection for direct determination of TATP and HMTD. De Tata et al [4] reported the application of RP HPLC with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-QToF-MS) for direct determination of various OPEs. However, micellar electrokinetic chromatography with UV detection was employed by Johns et al [5] recently for separation of OPEs including HMTD and TATP in post blast scenario without any marked improvement compared to the hyphenated HPLC methods in terms of sensitivity.…”