Rapid separation of post‐blast explosive residues on glass electrophoresis microchips

Abstract

This study describes the development of an analytical methodology based on the use of microchip electrophoresis (ME) devices integrated with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4 D) for the separation and detection of inorganic anions in post-blast explosive residues. The best separation condition was achieved using a running buffer composed of 35mmol/L lactic acid, 10mmol/L histidine and 0.070mmol/L cetyl(trimethyl ammonium) bromide. For C4 D measurements, the highest sensitivity was obtained applying a 700kHz sinusoidal wave with excitation voltage of 20Vpp . The separation of Cl- , NO3 - , NO2 - , SO4 2- , ClO4 - and ClO3 - was performed within ca. 150 s with baseline resolution and efficiencies between 4.4 × 104 and 1.7 × 105 plates/m. The found limits of detection ranged between 2.5 and 9.5μmol/L. Last, real samples of post-blast explosive residues were analyzed on the ME-C4 D devices obtaining successfully the determination of Cl- , NO3 - and SO4 2- . The achieved concentration values varied between 12.8-72.5mg/L for Cl- , 1.7-293.1mg/L for NO3 - and 1.3-201.3 mg/L for SO4 2- . The data obtained using ME-C4 D devices were in good agreement with the concentrations found by ion chromatography. The approach reported herein has provided short analysis time, instrumental simplicity, good analytical performance and low cost. Furthermore, the ME-C4 D devices emerge as a powerful and portable analytical platform for on-site analysis demonstrating to be a promising tool for the crime scene investigation.