We describe an ultra high performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (UHPLC/MS) method to efficiently separate, detect and quantitate all four classes of explosive compounds in soil samples, including eight nitroaromatics, two nitroamines, five nitrate esters and two peroxides. The explosives were separated on a Thermo Scientific Hypersil GOLD PFP, 1.9 µm, 2.1 x 100 mm column and detected by selected ion monitoring (SIM) on an Thermo Scientific MSQ Plus Mass Detector – a fast scanning, single-quadrupole mass spectrometer.
The Thermo Scientific UltiMate 3000 HPLC system is applied for the analysis of ISO 22478 explosives. The separation is performed on a Thermo Scientific Acclaim Explosives E2 column, with UV detection at 210 and 254 nm.
The Thermo Scientific HPLC system is applied for the analysis of explosives by EPA method 8300A. The separation is performed on a Thermo Scientific Acclaim Explosives E2 column, with UV detection at 254 nm.
The Thermo Scientific UltiMate 3000 RSLC system is applied for the analysis of EPA 8330A explosives. The separation is performed on a Thermo Scientific Acclaim Explosives E2 RSLC column, with UV detection at 254 nm.
The separation of 14 explosives using a Thermo Scientific Acclaim Explosives E2 column was performed in less than 12 minutes. This is a threefold acceleration of EPA Method 8330.
