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Analysis of explosives using differential mobility spectrometry

  • Original Research
  • Published:
International Journal for Ion Mobility Spectrometry

Abstract

Characterization of ions from eight explosives (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, pentaerythritol tetranitrate, 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, erythritol tetranitrate, hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, 2,4,6-trinitrophenylmethylnitramine and 1,3,5-trinitro-perhydro-1,3,5-triazine) using differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) with 63Ni as an ionization source was performed. Presented results of explosive analysis have been evaluated by use of special software tool which communicates with DMS in real time. This tool was developed for visualization, identification and comparison of measured data. Each explosive provides characteristic signal at a specific compensation voltage under a fixed dispersion field. Peaks in DMS spectra for these ions were confined to a range of compensation voltages between −1.61 to +1.71 V at RF = 1060 V. We calculated specific alpha coefficients (α2 and α4) to obtain a nonlinear function of explosives, based on their DMS spectra. Dependence of mobility for measured explosives ions in electric field at E/N values between 0 to 120 Td were used to inspectional graphical differentiation of explosives.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the Research plan No. VG20132015107 “DRAGON - The Hand-held Narcotic Compounds Sniffer & Analyzer (2013-2015, MV0/VG)”, which is financed by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. (Security Research for the Needs of the State 2010-2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Pardubice, Faculty of Chemical Technology, Studentská 573, 532 10, Pardubice, Czech Republic

    Martin Pavlačka, Petra Bajerová & Karel Ventura

  2. RS DYNAMICS s.r.o., Starochodovská 1359/86, 149 00, Prague 4, Czech Republic

    Kateřina Kortánková, Jiří Bláha, Michal Zástěra & Roman Mázl

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  1. Martin Pavlačka
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  2. Petra Bajerová
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  3. Kateřina Kortánková
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Correspondence to Petra Bajerová.

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Pavlačka, M., Bajerová, P., Kortánková, K. et al. Analysis of explosives using differential mobility spectrometry. Int. J. Ion Mobil. Spec. 19, 31–39 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12127-016-0190-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12127-016-0190-7

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