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Identification of Explosives from Porous Materials: Applications Using Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Gas Chromatography

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Abstract

High performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography techniques are well documented and widely used for the detection of trace explosives from organic solvents. These techniques were modified to identify and quantify explosives extracted from various materials taken from people who had recently handled explosives. Documented techniques were modified to specifically detect and quantify trace levels of the military explosives, RDX, TNT, and PETN from denim, colored flannel, vinyl, and canvas extracted in methanol and filtered using no additional sample cleanup of the sample extract prior to analysis. The filtered methanol extracts were injected directly into several different column types and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography using ultraviolet detection and/or gas chromatography using electron capture detection. This paper describes general screening methods that were used to determine the presence of explosives (RDX, TNT, and PETN) in unknown samples of denim, colored flannel, vinyl and canvas in addition to techniques that have been optimized for quantification of each explosive from the substrate extracts.

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Acknowledgments

This work was performed by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-99ID13727.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National and Homeland Security Division, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415, USA

    C. J. Miller

  2. Energy and Environmental Science and Technology Division, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415, USA

    G. Elias, N. C. Schmitt & C. Rae

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  1. C. J. Miller
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  2. G. Elias
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Correspondence to C. J. Miller.

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Miller, C.J., Elias, G., Schmitt, N.C. et al. Identification of Explosives from Porous Materials: Applications Using Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Gas Chromatography. Sens Imaging 11, 61–75 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11220-010-0051-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11220-010-0051-0

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