Identification and analysis of organic explosives from post-blast debris by nuclear magnetic resonance

• Published in: Journal of hazardous materials 2021-02, Vol.403, p.124003, Article 124003
• Main Authors: Munjal, Priyanka, Sharma, Bhumika, Sethi, J.R., Dalal, Anu, Gholap, Shivajirao L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Confocal Raman microscopy; Explosives; Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Post-blast debris; Thin-layer chromatography
• ISSN: 0304-3894; 1873-3336
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124003

The growing threat of terrorism has triggered an urgent need to find effective ways to improve the analysis of explosives. This will aid forensic scientists in analysing the post-blast debris, which in turn helps the law enforcement agencies to frame suitable regulations. Analysis of post-blast debris is challenging as it hosts a massive amount of complexity. There are various techniques reported till date such as mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of post-blast residues. However, none of them has been able to identify the structural composition of the explosives. The current research study focuses on identifying the structural composition of the explosives from the post-blast debris using the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology. The post-blast analytes were extracted from soil samples, cleaned by the solid phase extraction (SPE) method and were rapidly analysed by the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. This paper reports the identification of nitro organic explosives such as pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), trinitrotoluene (TNT) and 2,4,6-trinitrophenylmethylnitramine (tetryl) in post-blast debris by 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. [Display omitted] •Identification of unburnt nitro organic explosives such as TNT, PETN and tetryl from post blast debris. •Solid phase extraction of unburnt explosives from post blast soil samples. •Characterization of unburnt explosive in post blast soil by 1H NMR spectroscopy. •Confocal Raman microscopy and FT–IR studies of extracted unburnt explosives from post blast residue. •Colorimetric test and TLC of organic explosives.