BS ISO 11916-2:2013

This part of ISO 11916 specifies the measurement of explosive and related compounds (nitroaromatics and nitroamines, as given in Table 1) in soils and soil materials. This part of ISO 11916 is intended for the trace analysis of explosives and related compounds by gas chromatography (GC) using electron capture detector(s) (ECD) or a mass spectrometer (MS) as detector.

This part of ISO 11916 can be used when reliable and specific identification of the compounds at low detection levels is required, e.g. for the evaluation of the toxic potential of soils contaminated with 2,6‑DNT.

Under the conditions specified in this part of ISO 11916, concentrations as low as 0,05 mg/kg dry matter can be determined, depending on the substance. Similar compounds may be analysed using this method. This is, however, to be verified experimentally.

This method is not suitable for the analysis of hexogen (RDX), octogen (HMX), hexyl, tetryl and nitropenta (PETN).

Table 1

Selected explosive and related compounds (nitroaromatics and nitroamines) for analysis

^a CAS-RN: Chemical Abstract Service-Registry Number.

^b 1,3,5-TNB gave poor interlaboratory trial results and its analysis could be problematic.