Hyphenated and non-hyphenated chromatographic techniques for trace level explosives in water bodies - a review

Explosives are a class of xenobiotic, which pose a permanent and increasing concern on human and ecosystem health. These chemicals are highly toxic, some carcinogenic, and their detection in rural areas, surrounding military bases and weapon training facilities, became imperious. Quality of potable water particularly in rural areas, where wells are the primary water sources, is of great importance. More effective ways of extraction with less solvent consumption, coupled with chromatographic separation and mass spectrometry/ultraviolet detection techniques, are needed to quantify these trace level hazardous compounds at sub-ppb levels. The ultimate scope of measuring the concentration for these environmental contaminants is to build effective strategies for site protection, remediation and removal. This complex and original review brings together a vast amount of published work on conventional and modern explosives extraction approaches and their means of identification and quantification by hyphenated chromatographic techniques. With a strong focus on aqueous sample preparation and a multitude of analysis methods presented, this paper enables the researcher to a good assessment on past, present and future aspects. Latest progress in the high-resolution instrumentation is also briefly discussed.