Hannover 2010 – scientific programme
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MS: Fachverband Massenspektrometrie
MS 3: Neue massenspektrometrische Methoden und Entwicklungen
MS 3.4: Talk
Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 15:00–15:15, F 428
Explosives and chemical warfare agents - detection and analysis with PTR-MS — •Philipp Sulzer1, Fredrik Petersson2, Simone Jürschik1, Stefan Jaksch1, Alfons Jordan1, Gernot Hanel1, Eugen Hartungen1, Hans Seehauser1, Lukas Märk1, Stefan Haidacher1, Ralf Schottkowsky1, and Tilmann Märk1,2 — 1IONICON Analytik GmbH, Technikerstr. 21a, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria — 2Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
We utilized a recently developed high sensitivity PTR-MS instrument equipped with a high resolution time-of-flight mass analyzer for detailed investigations on explosives and chemical warfare agents (CWAs). We show that with this so called PTR-TOF 8000 it is possible to identify solid explosives (RDX, TNT, HMX, PETN and Semtex A) by analyzing the headspace above small quantities of samples at room temperature and from trace quantities not visible to the naked eye placed on surfaces. As the mentioned solid explosives possess very low vapor pressures, the main challenge for detecting them in the gas phase is to provide an instrument with a sufficient sensitivity. CWAs on the other side have very high vapor pressures but are difficult to identify unambiguously as their nominal molecular masses are usually comparably small and therefore hard to distinguish from harmless everyday-compounds (e.g. mustard gas: 159 g/mol). In the present work we demonstrate that we can detect a broad range of dangerous substances, ranging from the CWA mustard gas to the explosive HMX.