Development of a Gas Chromatography with High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Methodology for BDNPA/F

Analysis of thermally labile compounds such as bis(2,2-dinitropropyl)acetal/formal (BDNPA/F), an energetic plasticizer, is usually performedvia liquid chromatography (LC) as opposed to gas chromatography (GC)due to thermal decomposition in the inlet or the analytical column.While LC is a powerful technique, the analysis of volatile and semivolatilecompounds is best suited to GC. Herein, a method was developed fora gas chromatograph coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometer (GC-HRMS),utilizing a programmable temperature vaporizer (PTV) inlet. A subsetof the native compounds and several produced by the thermal decompositionof BDNPA/F in the inlet were evaluated by using multiple PTV inletparameters to determine the optimal ramp rate and final temperatureof the inlet (60 & DEG;C/min from 60 to 325 & DEG;C). The optimizedGC-HRMS method nearly reduced all thermal decomposition, allowingfor an excellent separation to be obtained. Furthermore, multipleionization methods, including electron impact (EI), negative chemicalionization (NCI), and positive chemical ionization (PCI), were usedto explore the many chemical differences between the BDNPA/F samples.A preliminary investigation of the benefits of using GC-HRMS to evaluatethe chemical differences between unaged and aged BDNPA/F samples forunique insight was evaluated.