title: Simultaneous capillary electrophoretic analysis of inorganic anions and cations in post-blast extracts of acid-aluminum mixtures.
abstract: Bursts resulting from the chemical reaction between hydrochloric or nitric acid with aluminum foils are very often committed by the young delinquency in western countries because of its easiness of achievement. A fast, simple, selective, and cost-effective method allowing the simultaneous detection of chloride and nitrate anions and aluminum(III) was thus required. This article focused on the development and validation of a CE method using a BGE containing 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid (PDC) acting as both an anionic chromophore and as an aluminum(III) complexing agent. First, the achievement of the speciation diagram of Al(III) in the presence of PDC allowed the choice of pH conditions for which aluminum(III) was globally anionic. The study of the selectivity for Al(III) in the presence of ten other cationic species potentially present in post-blast residues dictated the choice of the PDC concentration at 20  mM. The validation step next demonstrated the figures of merit of the method, with an intermediate precision for Al(III) of 2% on normalized migration times and 3.5% on corrected areas. Finally, this method was used for analyses of real post-blast extracts from acid-aluminum mixtures.
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory of the Prefecture de Police, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Cédric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sarazin
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Delaunay
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Varenne
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Costanza
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Eudes
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gareil