ac6b01322_si_001.pdf (1.09 MB)
Analysis of Ammonium Nitrate/Urea Nitrate with Crown Ethers and Sugars as Modifiers by Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry and Ion Mobility Spectrometry
journal contribution
posted on 2016-08-30, 00:00 authored by Chia-Wei Tsai, Anthony Midey, Ching Wu, Richard A. YostAmmonium nitrate
(AN) and urea nitrate (UN) are commonly used materials
in improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Detection by mass spectrometry
(MS) and/or ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is traditionally difficult.
The major challenges of detecting these species arise from their ionic
nature and their low mass (for MS detection) and size (for IMS detection).
Although AN and UN both produce characteristic higher mass (and size)
cluster ions when ionized by electrospray ionization (ESI), detection
of AN/UN using cluster ions poses difficulty at trace levels because
their formation is concentration-dependent. The addition of modifiers
to the ESI process is demonstrated here to overcome some of these
challenges for the detection of AN and UN using MS and/or IMS.