Analysis of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, pentaerythritol tetranitrate and cyclo-1,3,5-trimethylene-2,4,6-trinitramine using negative corona discharge ion mobility spectrometry

In this study, the capability of negative corona discharge ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) for quantitative magnitude of several explosives including 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) and cyclo-1,3,5-trimethylene-2,4,6-trinitramine (RDX) has been evaluated for the first time. The total current obtained with the negative corona discharge was about 100 times larger than that of IMS based on 63Ni, which results in a lower detection limit and a wider linear dynamic range. The detection limits for PETN, TNT and RDX were 8×10−11, 7×10−11 and 3×10−10 g, respectively. The calibration plots for these explosives showed linear dynamic ranges of about four orders of magnitude.