Title

Analysis Of Triacetone Triperoxide By Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry And Gas Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry By Electron And Chemical Ionization

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 mlz 240 corresponding to [TATP + NH 4]+. Isolation of the [TATP + NH4]+ ion with subsequent collision-induced dissociation (CID) produces extremely low abundance product ions at ml z values greater than 60, and the mlz 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 © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Publication Date

10-13-2006

Publication Title

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry

Volume

20

Issue

19

Number of Pages

2851-2857

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.2678

Socpus ID

33749514076 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/33749514076

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