title: Separation of explosives using capillary electrochromatography.
abstract: The identification of explosives and their degradation products is important in forensic and environmental applications. Complete separation of these structurally similar compounds using reversed-phase liquid chromatography has proven to be a challenge. Here we present a demonstration of the use of capillary electrochromatography on the separation of a series of 14 nitroaromatic and nitramine explosive compounds. A separation with baseline resolution is achieved for all of the compounds in under 7 min, featuring efficiencies of over 500 000 theoretical plates/m. Using more aggressive running conditions, 13 of the 14 compounds are separated in under 2 min.
authors.affiliation: Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 969, Mail Stop 9671, Livermore, California 94551.
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yan