14N Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Study of Polymorphism in Trinitrotoluene Samples Obtained from Old Ordnances

摘要

The field application of a 14N nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) detector needed for the detection of different explosives, including trinitrotoluene (TNT), requires the examination of the distribution of 14N NQR lines stemming from the monoclinic and/or orthorhombic modifications of TNT, as well as from a mixture of both. In this work, 30 different TNT samples up to 70 years old were measured. The main result of this study is that the measured 14N NQR spectrum is strongly influenced by the environmental conditions to which the explosive was subject during its history.