Rapp-Wright, Helena, McEneff, Gillian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2590-413X, Murphy, Bronagh, Gamble, Sally, Morgan, Ruth, Beardah, Matthew and Barron, Leon (2017) Suspect screening and quantification of trace organic explosives in wastewater using solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography-high resolution accurate mass spectrometry. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 329. pp. 11-21. ISSN 0304-3894

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Abstract

The first comprehensive assessment of 34 solid phase extraction sorbents is presented for organic explosive residues in wastewater prior to analysis with liquid chromatography-high resolution accurate mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). A total of 18 explosives were selected including nitramines, nitrate esters, nitroaromatics and organic peroxides. Three polymeric divinylbenzene-based sorbents were found to be most suitable and one co-polymerised with n-vinyl pyrrolidone offered satisfactory recoveries for 14 compounds in fortified wastewater (77–124%). Limits of detection in matrix ranged from 0.026–23 μg L−1 with R2 ≥ 0.98 for most compounds. The method was applied to eight 24-h composite wastewater samples from a London wastewater works and one compound, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, was determined over five days between 332 and 468 g day−1 (225–303 ng L−1). To further exploit the suspect screening capability, 17 additional explosives, precursors and transformation products were screened in spiked wastewater samples. Of these, 14 were detected with recoveries from 62 to 92%, highlighting the broad applicability of the method. To our knowledge, this represents the first screen of explosives-related compounds in wastewater from a major European city. This method also allows post-analysis detection of new or emerging compounds using full-scan HRMS datasets to potentially identify and locate illegal manufacture of explosives via wastewater analysis.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.01.008
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Keywords:	Sample preparation; Micro-pollutants; Sewage epidemiology; Energetic materials; 2,4-dinitrotoluene
Subjects:	Law and criminal justice > Criminal justice > Forensic science
Depositing User:	Gillian McEneff
Date Deposited:	09 Aug 2017 18:57
Last Modified:	06 Feb 2024 15:53
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/3693

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