Performance evaluation of an in-injection port thermal desorption/gas chromatographic/negative ion chemical ionization mass spectrometric method for trace explosive vapor analysis

A gas chromatographic method utilizing thermal desorption of Tenax TA and sol-gel sorbent traps has been developed and validated for the analysis of trace explosive vapor with negative ion chemical ionization mass spectrometric detection. Sorbent tubes were packed with Tenax TA and sorbent particles prepared in-house by the sol-gel process. Thermal desorption was performed within a split/splitless injection port with minimal instrument modification. Performance was characterized by relative thermal desorption recovery, precision (reproducibility), linearity of the calibration, and method detection limits. Method validation was performed with a series of dinitrotoluenes, dinitrobenzene, trinitrotoluene, trinitrobenzene, two aminodinitrotoluenes, three nitroesters, and two nitramines. The performance of Tenax TA and the sol-gel sorbents is evaluated based on the method validation data. The method was applied to the analysis of trace explosive vapor collected and concentrated with sol-gel solid sorbent traps from the headspace of a smokeless gunpowder sample.