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

    Authors

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

    Comments

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    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

    Language

    English

    First Page

    2851

    Last Page

    2857

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000241040400008

    ISSN

    0951-4198

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