Miniaturized plasma-based ionization source for LC-MS detection of multiclass explosives in soil and water
In this work, dielectric barrier discharge ionization was applied for the multiclass detection of explosives and related compounds using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Up to 11 compounds were studied, including nitroaromatic explosives such as nitrotoluene and nitrobenzen...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión aceptada para publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Jaén |
| Repositorio: | RUJA. Repositorio Institucional de la Producción Científica de la Universidad de Jaén |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:ruja________::f66b8a32dce9174bbb598a050659b549 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2026.118140 https://hdl.handle.net/10953/7821 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Mass spectrometry explosive dielectric barrier discharge APCI 2301.03 2301.10 |
| Sumario: | In this work, dielectric barrier discharge ionization was applied for the multiclass detection of explosives and related compounds using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Up to 11 compounds were studied, including nitroaromatic explosives such as nitrotoluene and nitrobenzene derivatives. This study proposes the utilization of flexible microtube plasma (FµTP) as an alternative ionization source for explosive analysis. The performance of this miniaturized source was compared with standard atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) in terms of limits of quantification (LOQs), linearity, reproducibility, and matrix effects. Two environmentally relevant matrices, soil and surface water, were selected for method evaluation. After careful optimization of both ionization sources, FµTP showed an average 4-fold increase in sensitivity (up to 9-fold) compared with APCI based on calibration slope comparison, achieving LOQs ranging from 0.2 to 200 µg kg-¹ in soil and from 0.001 to 1 µg L-¹ in water. Regarding matrix effects, although similar behavior was observed in water for both sources, a marked reduction was achieved in soil extracts using FµTP, with 82% of compounds showing negligible effects compared to only 18% with APCI. These findings highlight FµTP as an effective alternative ionization source for the determination of explosives in complex environmental samples. |
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