title: Determination of the potassium content of explosive residues using miniaturised isotachophoresis.
abstract: A new method has been developed to allow the determination of potassium in post-explosion residues to be made using miniaturised isotachophoresis. The method is based on the use of a caesium leading ion with 4.5 mM 18-crown-6 ether added to retard the potassium to allow reliable determinations to be made. With the conditions selected no interference was noted from other small inorganic cations, such as ammonium, barium, calcium, magnesium, sodium or strontium. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of seven samples containing explosive residues obtained from the unconfined burning of several flash powders. The procedure was found to offer good linearity for potassium determinations over the concentration range of 1.25-150 μg/mL with a coefficient of determination of 0.999 achieved.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. j.prest@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jeff E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Prest
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Beardah
authors.forename: Sara J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Baldock
authors.forename: Sean P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Doyle
authors.forename: Peter R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Fielden
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Goddard
authors.forename: Bernard J Treves
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D002412:Cations / Q000032:analysis; D043844:Crown Ethers / Q000737:chemistry; D046209:Electrophoresis, Microchip / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D057625:Isotachophoresis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D016014:Linear Models; D011188:Potassium / Q000032:analysis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D002412:Cations; D043844:Crown Ethers; D053834:Explosive Agents; C015762:18-crown-6; D011188:Potassium