title: Rapid and sensitive measurements of nitrate ester explosives using microchip electrophoresis with electrochemical detection.
abstract: This article describes an effective microchip protocol based on electrophoretic-separation and electrochemical detection for highly sensitive and rapid measurements of nitrate ester explosives, including ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), propylene glycol dinitrate (PGDN) and glyceryl trinitrate (nitroglycerin, NG). Factors influencing the separation and detection processes were examined and optimized. Under the optimal separation conditions obtained using a 15 mM borate buffer (pH 9.2) containing 20 mM SDS, and applying a separation voltage of 1500 V, the four nitrate ester explosives were separated within less than 3 min. The glassy-carbon amperometric detector (operated at -0.9 V vs. Ag/AgCl) offers convenient cathodic detection down to the picogram level, with detection limits of 0.5 ppm and 0.3 ppm for PGDN and for NG, respectively, along with good repeatability (RSD of 1.8-2.3%; n = 6) and linearity (over the 10-60 ppm range). Such effective microchip operation offers great promise for field screening of nitrate ester explosives and for supporting various counter-terrorism surveillance activities.
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Evandro
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Piccin
authors.forename: Nicolò
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dossi
authors.forename: Avi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cagan
authors.forename: Emanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carrilho
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D055664:Electrochemical Techniques / Q000379:methods; D046209:Electrophoresis, Microchip / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004952:Esters / Q000032:analysis; D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D044707:Forensic Sciences / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D009566:Nitrates / Q000032:analysis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D004952:Esters; D053834:Explosive Agents; D009566:Nitrates