News|Articles|July 29, 2025

Enhanced Analysis of Explosives Listed in EPA Method 8330B using APCI-LC-MS/MS

This poster presents an example of the analysis of all 17 explosives listed in EPA 8330B using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (APCI-LC-MS/MS), which allowed for more sensitive and selective analysis than PDA detection. In addition, MRM analysis provides an extra layer of confirmation based on the unique fragmentation of each compound.


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Figure 2. Split injection used to measure triplicate test of MTBE, hexane, o-xylene, and 1-methylnaphthalene comparing different solvents (methanol, methylene chloride) and column insertion distances starting with 0.5 mm, 5.0 mm, 10.0 mm, 15 mm, and 20.0 mm. Methanol had the best performance at the 5.0 mm insertion distance and methylene chloride looked slightly better at the 0.5 mm. We would still recommend not going below the 5.0 mm manufacturer recommended insertion distance.
Revisiting insertion distance for methanol and methylene chloride in GC analysis and confirming that insertion depth strongly affects response and reproducibility.
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