Title

Analysis of triacetone triperoxide by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry by electron and chemical ionization

Authors

Authors

M. E. Sigman; C. D. Clark; R. Fidler; C. L. Geiger;C. A. Clausen

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom.

Keywords

TATP; IDENTIFICATION; SPECTROSCOPY; Chemistry, Analytical; Spectroscopy

Abstract

The explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) has been analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and sub-nanogram detection limits are reported by ammonia positive ion chemical ionization (PICI), electron ionization (EI) and methane negative ion chemical ionization (NICI). Analysis by methane PICI and ammonia NICI gave detection limits in the low nanogram range. Analyses were carried out on (linear) quadrupole and ion trap instruments. Analysis of TATP by PICI using ammonia reagent gas is the preferred analytical method, producing low limits of detection as well as an abundant (greater than 60% of base peak) diagnostic adduct ion at m/z 240 corresponding to [TATP + NH4](+). Isolation of the [TATP + NH4](+) ion with subsequent collision-induced dissociation (CID) produces extremely low abundance product ions at m/z values greater than 60, and the m/z 223 ion corresponding to [TATP + H](+) was not observed. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations at the B88LYP/DVZP level indicate that dissociation of the complex to form NH4+ and TATP occurs at energies lower than peroxide bond dissociation, while protonation of TATP leads to cleavage of the ring structure. These results provide a method for pico-gram detection levels of TATP using commercial instrumentation commonly available in forensic laboratories. As a point of comparison, a detection limit of 15 ng was obtained by flame ionization detection. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal Title

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry

Volume

20

Issue/Number

19

Publication Date

1-1-2006

Document Type

Article

DOI Link

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rcm.2678

Language

English

First Page

2851

Last Page

2857

WOS Identifier

WOS:000241040400008

ISSN

0951-4198

Recommended Citation

"Analysis of triacetone triperoxide by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry by electron and chemical ionization" (2006). Faculty Bibliography 2000s. 6586.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/facultybib2000/6586