Electrochemical Behaviour of Organic Explosive Compounds in Ionic Liquids: Towards Discriminate Electrochemical Sensing

Abstract The electrochemical reduction of four organic explosive compounds, 1,3,5,7‐tetranitro‐1,3,5,7‐tetrazocane (HMX), 1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazinane (RDX), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) and 2,4,6‐trinitrophenylmethylnitramine (tetryl), is studied in eight room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). In all RTILs, the peaks were highly complicated, but much better resolved than previous studies conventional solvents. HMX typically showed broad overlapping RTILs with distinctly different voltammetric wave shapes. voltammetry RDX also varied dramatically, ranging from one to reductive features. PETN large peak owing processes for nitro‐ groups. Tetryl produced most complex largest number cathodic peaks, likely due structure that contains both nitramine nitroaromatic For explosives, an electrogenerated product was oxidized on reverse scan. potentials shapes found vary significantly allowing possibility ‘fingerprint’ explosives using their distinct signatures, suggesting discriminative sensing may be possible by careful tuning RTIL structure. Exploring behaviour these a first step towards utilising as favourable solvents detection such compounds.