Method development for quality control of the primary explosive, Potassium 4,6-Dinitrobenzofuroxan (KDNBF)

Sammanfattning: “Green” explosives are an important sub-family of explosives due to the banning of explosives based on heavy metals, such as lead azide and lead styphnate, according to the REACH list. A substitute to lead azide is potassium 4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxane (KDNBF) which is an alternative “green” explosive. Hence there is an upcoming need for analytical and quality control protocols for KDNBF. In this report is HPLC-UV/VIS, GC-FID and potentiometric titration evaluated for their suitability as methods for testing of KDNBF. The results implies that KDNBF can be analyzed by GC-FID, when dissolved in DMSO and caffeine is used as internal standard. To analyze KDNBF by HPLC-UV/VIS was isocratic mode used together with a porous graphitic carbon (PGC) (Hypercarb ®) column. However, degradation of the analyte was severe and quantitative results were not obtained. Potentiometric titration indicated that KDNBF equilibrate with four hydrogen ions during titration, instead of the one to one ratio with potassium and hydrogen ion, as in previously proposed theory. Despite this and with careful titration is potentiometric titration and GC-FID analysis combined suitable as a quality control protocol for KDNBF.