Separation of nitramine and nitroaromatic explosives by capillary liquid chromatography

This study outlines the successful separation of nitrated explosives by using high efficiency capillary liquid chromatography. Careful optimization of separation conditions such as mobile phase composition and temperature was performed by using a window diagram, as well as a more global criterion, the chromatographic resolution statistic. These efforts resulted in complete baseline resolution of all 14 components of a standard mixture of explosives, which has not previously been achieved using conventional liquid chromatography. This method was then applied to the determination of hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazine (HMX), and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (2,4,6-TNT) in commercial-grade and military-grade explosive samples. As a result, the countries of manufacture of two RDX samples were deduced based on the presence or absence of reaction byproducts.