Anions in pre‐ and post‐blast consumer fireworks by capillary electrophoresis

Abstract

Consumer fireworks are a heterogeneous group of pyrotechnic items widely used by citizens around the world. There are a wide number of forensic cases related to consumer fireworks that require knowing their chemical composition and variety of designs to conduct accurate and comprehensive analyses. In this research paper, a selection of six consumer firework types (firecracker, rocket, pyrotechnic fountain, pyrotechnic battery, sparkler, and smoke bomb) is physically described and their anionic compositions are determined. Preblast (fuses and charges) samples and postblast residues of the different consumer fireworks were analyzed by CE in order to determine their anionic composition. Different types of chemical compositions in fuses and pyrotechnic charges were determined, although they were not related to any type of item. Additionally, several discrepancies were found between the analytical results and the declared item compositions. Regarding postblast residues, a huge variety of anions were identified and attributed to some unconsumed starting materials and different chemical reactions occurring during combustion.

Determination of Nanogram Microparticles from Explosives after Real Open-Air Explosions by Confocal Raman Microscopy

“…Within the few studies focused on post-blast residues analysis, most of them have been accomplished using liquid [4][5][6] or gas chromatography 7,8 coupled with mass spectrometry 9-13 for organic explosives; and ion chromatography or capillary electrophoresis for inorganic explosive mixtures. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Nevertheless, these techniques are time and reagent consuming. They require laborious sample preparations and they are destructive.…”

Preliminary Investigations into the Source Attribution of Party Sparklers Using Trace Elemental Analysis and Chemometrics

“…Party sparklers are the most accessible pyrotechnic available for use by the general public all year round, and therefore are most commonly used to initiate or make improvised explosive devices. Previous work has been undertaken on the characterisation of consumer fireworks and pyrotechnics as well as the environmental impact and persistence of post-blast residues [28][29][30] . However, these studies have little relevance to the Australian forensic context as most of the products investigated are not commercially available within Australia.…”

Recent advances in capillary electrophoresis instrumentation for the analysis of explosives

“…Nevertheless, compared to the previous studies [11][12][13], significant advancements have been made and they are discussed according to the analytes of interest. As can be seen, most of the works have focused on the analysis of cations and anions, as some of them can be considered as marker ions (after an explosion) for the potential identification of inorganic salts contained in the explosives [19][20][21][22][24][25][26][27], and only one study was devoted to the analysis of carbohydrates. [23] Apart from the analysis of high-order explosives,28 studies have also focused on environmental analysis, with only few on forensic purposes.…”

“…[25,26] The authors also employed the same CE methodology to detect anions and cations in consumer fireworks: after a physical characterization of the six types of consumer fireworks studied, which authors claimed to be essential for result interpretation, they were analysed and chemically characterized. [27] RSDtmig < 1.1 (n = 6) RSDArea < 3.5 (n = 6) [33] (continued on next page)…”

“…[38] Thanks to the dual detection technique, fireworks were for the first time analysed for the detection of cations and anions, providing more complete information than the previous works, where only anions were determined. [27] Finally, E. G. Kobrinet al used a custom-made P-CE equipment to detect residues from different explosives. Contrary to the previous works, sample introduction strategy was in this case performed by the dual opposite end injection (first the anions and then the cations).…”