On‐site gas chromatographic determination of explosives in soils

Abstract

AbstractOn‐site determination of nitroaromatic and nitramine residues in soils was performed using a field‐portable gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with a thermionic ionization detector selective for compounds with nitro functional groups. Soil samples were extracted with acetone. A 1‐μl volume of the filtered extract was manually injected into the GC, allowing for the rapid determination of the suite of explosives that often coexist in explosives‐contaminated soils at military training facilities and other defense‐related sites. Good agreement was established for the concentrations of several explosives when results obtained using this method of analysis were compared with those from either high‐performance liquid chromatography (Method 8330) or GC electron capture (Method 8095) analysis. Comparisons were performed for sample extracts and for soil subsample replicates distributed for on‐site analysis during a field verification test performed under the auspices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Technology Verification Program. This on‐site GC method for the determination of explosives residues in soils is well suited for dynamic site characterization activities. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Field Analyt Chem Technol 5: 228–238, 2001