Field Gas Chromatography/Thermionic Detector System for On-Site Determination of Explosives in Soils

摘要

On-site determination of nitroaromatic,nitramine,and nitrate ester explosives compounds in soils was performed using a field-portable gas chromatograph (GC)equipped with a thermionic ionization detector (TID)selective for compounds with nitro functional groups. Soil samples were extracted with acetone. A 1 microliter volume of the filtered soil extract was manually injected into the GC,allowing for the rapid qualification and quantification of the suite of explosives that often coexist in soils at military training facilities and other defense-related sites. Good agreement was established for the concentrations of several explosives analytes when this method of analysis was compared to either high-performance liquid chromatography (Method 8330)or GC electron capture (Method 8095)analysis. Comparisons were performed for sample extracts and for soil subsample replicates distributed for on-site preparation and analysis during a field verification test performed under the auspices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Technology Verification (ETV)Program.