Ion chromatography-mass spectrometry: A review of recent technologies and applications in forensic and environmental explosives analysis

• A critical review of the evolution of IC-MS and its application to low-order explosives detection.
• Comprehensive comparison of reported method performances at the fg–μg level.
• A review of auxiliary on-line approaches to maximise MS detector sensitivity.
• A comparison of IC-MS to other confirmatory analytical technologies.
• Emerging future areas for IC-MS in forensic and environmental explosives analysis.

The development and application of ion chromatography (IC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) is discussed herein for the quantitative determination of low-order explosives-related ionic species in environmental and forensic sample types. Issues relating to environmental explosives contamination and the need for more confirmatory IC-MS based applications in forensic science are examined. In particular, the compatibility of a range of IC separation modes with MS detection is summarised along with the analytical challenges that have been overcome to facilitate determinations at the ng–μg L−1 level. Observed trends in coupling IC to inductively coupled plasma and electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry form a particular focus. This review also includes a discussion of the relative performance of reported IC-MS methods in comparison to orthogonal ion separation-based, spectrometric and spectroscopic approaches to confirmatory detection of low-order explosives. Finally, some promising areas for future research are highlighted and discussed with respect to potential IC-MS applications.

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