Trends in analysis of explosives by microchip electrophoresis and conventional CE

Abstract

The continuous upsurge in terrorist activity has generated tremendous demand for innovative tools capable of detecting nitrated organic, inorganic, and peroxide-based explosives. This article directly extends the previous exhaustive review (Electrophoresis 2006, 27, 244-256) and overviews the research activity in the field of microchip and conventional capillary electrophoresis for analysis of a variety of explosive compounds and mixtures in the past two years (middle 2005-middle 2007), with the focus on world-to-chip interfaces and detection techniques.

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.…”

“…Portable CE Table 1 summarizes the most relevant works conducted on the advancements made in the portable CE equipment during the last years. [36][37][38][39] Contrary to the reviews previously reported [11][12][13], we introduced P-CE independent of the conventional CE, due to the high relevance that this technology has acquired during the last years for the analysis of explosives. These developments have been achieved due to the relative simple set-up of the P-CE, compared to other separation techniques that require more complex instrumentation.…”

“…In fact, different reviews devoted to the advances of CE in explosives can be consulted in the literature. [11][12][13] However, during the last years, new approaches have been developed for the analysis of explosives, and new instrumental set-ups also have been optimized and applied to these samples. Figures of merit of this recent research are of interest from a forensic standpoint, but also to note the recent development in CE instrumentation and its applicability.…”

“…[11][12][13] The first section describes the traditional CE analysis of explosives and its potential advantages in the field of forensics and homeland security as well as limitations. The subsequent sections focus on the critical review of the previously published studies on the analysis of explosives using different types of CE: conventional CE, the recently developed P-CE, and microchip CE.…”

Portable capillary-based (non-chip) capillary electrophoresis

“…Chip-based CE (chip-CE) can be utilized in proteomic analysis [41], DNA separation, including sequencing [42][43][44], fragment sizing and genotyping [45], analysis of low-molecular-weight compounds (e.g., explosive residues and warfare agents) [46], food analysis [47], and analysis of pharmaceuticals, drugs and various analytes in body fluids [48]. Despite the trend towards increasing utilization of microfluidic chips in analytical chemistry, confirmed by the steadily growing number of scientific publications focusing on microfluidic chips (Fig.…”