Citation

Cagan A, Lu D, Cizek K, La Belle J, Wang J. Analyst 2008; 133(5): 585-587.

Affiliation

The Biodesign Institute and Departments of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5801, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Royal Society of Chemistry)

DOI

10.1039/b800858b

PMID

18427677

Abstract

A highly selective and rapid electrochemical assay of the improvised explosive urea nitrate (UN) is reported. The method involves a short ( approximately 10 s) acid-catalyzed reaction of UN with 4-nitrotoluene (NT) followed by a rapid ( approximately 2 s) square-wave voltammetric (SWV) detection of the 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT) product. The new protocol offers great promise for a reliable field detection of UN, with significant advantages of speed, sensitivity, portability, simplicity, and cost.

Language: en