title: Atmospheric pressure ion/molecule reactions for the selective detection of nitroaromatic explosives using acetonitrile and air as reagents.
abstract: Acetonitrile vapor and air are useful reagents for the selective detection of nitroaromatic compounds using atmospheric pressure ion/molecule reactions. Reagent ions CH2CN- and CN- generated from acetonitrile, and O-*, OH- and OOH- produced from the oxygen in air, react with vapor-phase and condensed-phase nitroaromatics in the course of atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DAPCI), respectively. The homogeneous and the heterogeneous phase reactions both lead to the formation of the same anionic adducts. These adducts have characteristic fragmentation patterns upon collisional activation, which makes these two reagents valuable for the selective detection of particular nitroaromatics, including explosives present as components of complex mixtures. Complementary information is available from the two reagents because their different chemistry facilitates analyte identification. DAPCI is demonstrated to be a useful ambient detection method for nitroaromatic explosives absorbed on surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, 560 Oval Drive, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: Yishu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: R Graham
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Cooks
mesh_terms: D000097:Acetonitriles / Q000737:chemistry*; D000388:Air; D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D006841:Hydrocarbons, Aromatic / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D007202:Indicators and Reagents / Q000737:chemistry; D017672:Nitrogen Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012637:Security Measures; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000097:Acetonitriles; D006841:Hydrocarbons, Aromatic; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D017672:Nitrogen Compounds; C032159:acetonitrile