TEA (Thermal Energy Analyser)
TEA Model 510 Analyser for Explosives and Nitrosamines
The TEA Model 510 Analyser, is a highly specific instrument for the detection and quantitation of thermally labile nitro compounds found in munitions and explosives. It is a fast, sensitive, and accurate instrument - able to perform analyses in a simple and straightforward manner. The Model 510 will accept samples which are introduced directly or from a gas or liquid chromatographic interface.
With its high specificity for the nitrosyl radical, the model 510 is ideal for the analysis of munitions and explosive ordinance manufacturing, quality control, environmental monitoring, law enforcement, forensic, and legal investigations. It also has a unique application in health care.
Typical analyses performed by the TEA model 510 anaylser include:
- Firearm discharge trace anlyses - identifies type and source of propellant
- Post-blast debris analyses - identifies origin of explosives even from dirty samples
- Quality Control - monitors quality of product formulations and checking for deterioration during storage
- Environmental analyses - provides compliance checks on plant air and effluents.
- Medical Monitoring - identifies trace amounts of such vasodilators as nitroglycerine, and isosorbide dinitrate and its metabolites, in blood or serum, even in the presence of proteins and lipid contaminants.
Fast Results
The Model 510 is simple to operate and produces accurate results in less than 20 minutes. Conventional explosives analysis techniques, such as thin layer chromatography or mass spectrometry, can require considerable time to provide results.
High Specificity
The TEA model 510 is highly specific for compounds containing thermally labile nitro, nitroso, or similar types of groups. Even with highly complex mixtures, the instrument can detect and quantify nitroaromatic compounds, nitrofurans, and most nitroanilines and nitrotoluenes.
Unsurpassed Accuracy
Explosives analysis with the model 510 is simple and is unaffected by the presence of plasticizers, stabilizers, and other potential contaminants which cause interferences with other methods of detection. Small sample quantities - such as those collected from blast sites, downstream from manufacturing operations or found in body fluids - can be precisely measured
Superiority of Analysis
The TEA Model 510 Analyser out performs other methods of explosives analysis - including HPLC analysis using such conventional detectors as UV or RI.
UV or RI detectors are not specific, and the accuracy of this method depends on the complete separation of all components in the mixture. This is frequently difficult because of the presence of stabilizers and plasticizers found in explosives.
Thin Layer Chromatography provides speed of analysis, but large sample quantities are required which could exclude those analyses where only trace levels of explosives may be found - such as in wastewater or post blast residues
Gas Chromatography using conventional detectors such as electron capture are easily overloaded by the presence of stabilizers or plasticizers when looking for trace amounts of explosives. Most explosives, by their very nature are thermally labile. They will undergo breakdown and will not survive the high GC temperature. Thermally stable aromatic nitro compounds are the exception.
Mass Spectrometry often gives undesirable mass spectral fragmentation. Results tend to be ambiguous and therefore analysis by mass spectrometry can be difficult and complex.
Thus the TEA analyser provides an ideal approach to explosives analysis.
it provides:
- analysis of small sample amounts
- detection even in the presence of stabilizers and plasticizers
- simple analysis
- fast results
- unsurpassed accuracy