Potential analytical applications of differential fluorescence quenching: pyrene monomer and excimer emissions as sensors for electron deficient molecules

Quenching of the monomer and excimer emissions from pyrene allows excellent discrimination in the detection of electron-deficient molecules; this characteristic could be used to detect explosives and for rapid screening of complex samples suspected of containing explosives. The method responds to electron deficient molecules other than nitro compounds (e.g., 1,4-dicyanobenzene), giving some false positives; in this case, however, the method is unlikely to lead to false negatives, a desirable characteristic in security-related applications.

Determination of cyclonite (RDX) in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple and sensitive HPLC method has been developed for the assay of cyclonite (RDX) in human plasma. The assay involves solid-phase extraction on Tox-clean RC SPE cartridges and isocratic reversed-phase chromatography with diode-array detection. The assay was linear over the concentration range of 0.01-2.0 microg/ml for plasma with a lower limit of detection of 0.005 microg/ml. Both the within-day and day-to-day reproducibilities and accuracies were less than 10.15 and 1.9%, respectively. The method was applied to evaluate RDX concentration in plasma samples obtained from soldiers exposed RDX.