Fast Separation and Quantification Method for Nitroguanidine and 2,4-Dinitroanisole by Ultrafast Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Explosives are now persistent environmental pollutants that are targets of remediation and monitoring in a wide array of environmental media. Nitroguanidine (NG) and 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN) are two insensitive energetic compounds recently used as munitions explosives. To protect our environment and human health, the levels of these compounds in soils and waters need to be monitored. However, no sensitive analytical methods, such as liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), have been developed for detecting these new compounds at trace levels and to be concurrently applied to monitor the common explosives. In general, the concentrations of explosives in either soil or water samples are very low and widely distributed. Therefore, a fast and sensitive method is required to monitor those compounds and increase our ability to find and address the threats they pose to human health and ecological receptors. In this study, a fast and sensitive analytical method has been developed to quantitatively determine NG and DNAN in soil, tap water, and river water by using ultrafast LC-MS/MS. To make this method a comprehensive analytical technique for other explosives as well, it has included other commonly used explosives in the method development, such as octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX), 1,3,5-trinitroper-hydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene (ADNT), and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). The method detection limits (MDLs) of these compounds in soil ranged from 0.2 to 5 ppb, and a good linearity was obtained over a concentration range of 0.5-200 ppb. The recoveries of some compounds are equal to or better than the current EPA methods but with much higher sensitivities.

Trace Level Detection of Explosives in Solution Using Leidenfrost Phenomenon Assisted Thermal Desorption Ambient Mass Spectrometry

“…The aromatic nitro compound TNT was easily detected as de- Fig. 4(b, c) 4 ] − . The LODs for RDX and HMX were 1 and 5 ppb, respectively, with S/N>3 [Inset (Fig.…”

“…The exact area contaminated by explosives is difficult to identify as the residues are widely scattered in places of artillery practice and production and also they are disposed off without any documentation. 4) There is also possibility that these explosive-residue related pollutants can be enriched and enter in food chain. 5) Due to these facts, rapid, sensitive and unambiguous detection of various explosives from different environmental sources with minimal sample handling are highly demanding.…”

New "turn-off" fluorescence sensors to detect vapors of nitro-explosives on the basis of 4,6-bis[5-(heteroaryl)thiophen-2-yl] substituted 5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)pyrimidines

“…[1][2][3][4][5] Instrumental methods, which are generally used to detect nitro explosives, include gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, [6][7][8] nuclear quadrupole resonance, 9 energy dispersive X-ray diffraction, 10 and ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), 11,12 but all these methods are rather expensive, and can hardly be made portable. In addition, many of these techniques require special equipment and/or need in pre-concentrating procedures.…”

Fast Determination of Phenanthrene in Soil by Gas Chromatography‐Mass Spectrometry Using Chemometric Resolution and Standard Addition Method

“…[8,9] Furthermore, ultrafast liquid chromatography tandem DAD or MS (UFLC-DAD or UFLC-MS) was employed for speeding up the analysis. [10,11] For the analysis of real complex samples, however, it is still difficult to find a rapid and efficient way due to the serious matrix interference and the peak overlapping of the interested component and the coexistent ones. Therefore, a separation step is generally needed for purification of the samples.…”