SEPARATION OF EXPLOSIVES USING CAPILLARY ELECTROCHROMATOGRAPHY

The identification of explosives and their degradation products is imp ortant in forensic and environmental applications. Complete separation of these structurally similar compounds using reversed-phase liquid c hromatography has proven to be a challenge. Here we present a demonstr ation of the use of capillary electrochromatography on the separation of a series of 14 nitroaromatic and nitramine explosive compounds. A s eparation with baseline resolution is achieved for all of the compound s in under 7 min, featuring efficiencies of over 500 000 theoretical p lates/m. Using more aggressive running conditions, 13 of the 14 compou nds are separated in under 2 min.