1,4-Benzoquinone as a Highly Efficient Dopant for Enhanced Ionization and Detection of Nitramine Explosives on a Single-Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer Fitted with a Helium-Plasma Ionization (HePI) Source

Julius Pavlov, David Douce, Steve Bajic, Athula B. Attygalle

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Previous investigations have evaluated the efficacy of anions such as NO3 , Cl , Br, CH3COO, and CF3COO as additives to generate or enhance mass spectrometric signals from explosives under plasma ionization conditions. The results of this study demonstrate that for detecting nitramine-class explosives, such as 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) and 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazacyclooctane (HMX), 1,4-benzoquinone (BQ) is a highly effective and efficient dopant. When used in conjunction with ambient-pressure negative-ion helium-plasma ionization (HePI), 1,4-benzoquinone readily captures an electron, forming an abundant molecular anion (m/z 108), which upon exposure to vapors of RDX and HMX generates adduct ions of m/z 330 and 404, respectively. The signal level recorded for RDX upon adduction to the radical anion of 1,4-benzoquinone under our experimental conditions was significantly higher than that realized by chloride adduction using dichloromethane (DCM) as the dopant. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2704-2710
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Volume30
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2019

Keywords

  • 1,4-Benzoquinone
  • Ambient mass spectrometry
  • Electron-capture ionization
  • Gas-phase adducts
  • Ionization methods
  • Nitramine explosives

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