Applications of direct injection soft chemical ionisation-mass spectrometry for the detection of pre-blast smokeless powder organic additives

Ramón González-méndez, Chris A. Mayhew

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
125 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Analysis of smokeless powders is of interest from forensics and security perspectives. This article reports the detection of smokeless powder organic additives (in their pre-detonation condition), namely the stabiliser diphenylamine and its derivatives 2-nitrodiphenylamine and 4-nitrodiphenylamine, and the additives (used both as stabilisers and plasticisers) methyl centralite and ethyl centralite, by means of swab sampling followed by thermal desorption and direct injection soft chemical ionisation-mass spectrometry. Investigations on the product ions resulting from the reactions of the reagent ions H3O+ and O2+ with additives as a function of reduced electric field are reported. The method was comprehensively evaluated in terms of linearity, sensitivity and precision. For H3O+, the limits of detection (LoD) are in the range of 41–88 pg of additive, for which the accuracy varied between 1.5 and 3.2%, precision varied between 3.7 and 7.3% and linearity showed R2 ≥ 0.9991. For O2+, LoD are in the range of 72 to 1.4 ng, with an accuracy of between 2.8 and 4.9% and a precision between 4.5 and 8.6% and R2 ≥ 0.9914. The validated methodology was applied to the analysis of commercial pre-blast gun powders from different manufacturers.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)615-624
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Volume30
Issue number4
Early online date13 Feb 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Apr 2019

Bibliographical note

González-Méndez, R. & Mayhew, C.A. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-018-02130-1

Keywords

  • PTR-MS
  • Proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry
  • SCIMS
  • Smokeless powder additives
  • Smokeless powders
  • Soft chemical ionisation-mass spectrometry

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Structural Biology
  • Spectroscopy

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