Liquid Chromatographic Method for Determination of Explosives Residues in Soil: Collaborative Study

Abstract

Abstract A collaborative study of a sonic extraction/liquid chromatographic method for determining nitroaromatic and nitramlne explosives In soil was conducted at 8 participating laboratories. Analytes HMX, RDX, TNB, DNB, tetryl, TNT, and 2,4-DNT were measured In duplicate for 4 field-contaminated soils and 4 spiked standard-matrix soils. Concentrations ranged from detection limits of about 1 μg/g to nearly 1000 μg/g. Results were evaluated with and without data Identified as outliers, which were often caused by electronic integrator miscalculation of chromatographic peak response. When outliers are excluded, method repeatability (within-laboratory relative standard deviation) for all analytes except tetryl Is less than 5% for spiked soils and less than 18% for fieldcontaminated soils. Relative standard deviation generally decreases as analyte concentration Increases. Reproducibility (between-laboratory relative standard deviation), except for tetryl and DNT, Is less than 7% for spiked soils and 26% for fleld-contamlnated soils. Thus, collaborators have nearly equivalent performance on spiked samples. For fleld-contamlnated soils, some additional Imprecision seems to result from the variability of extraction recoveries. Analyte recoveries from spiked soils are 95-97% for HMX, RDX, TNT, and DNT (similar to recoveries from aqueous samples); 92-93% for DNB and TNB; and 70% for tetryl. Poor results for tetryl (due to thermal degradation) are correctable If sonic bath temperatures are maintained near ambient. The method has been approved Interim official first action by AOAC.