The corrosion of unexploded ordnance casings at shooting ranges or dumping grounds provides an entry for munitions constituents into the marine environment.  Exposure of these dissolved compounds to sunlight can cause some of them to degrade into products that are more toxic than the parent compound.  In this work, some of the products formed by photolysis of two common propellants, 2,6-dinitrotoluene (2,6-DNT) and 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT), in seawater and salt water  solutions were separated and identified.  Solutions containing 2,4-DNT or 2,6-DNT were photolyzed using a solar simulator.  The product mixtures were extracted on amino and C-18 solid phase extraction cartridges and sequentially eluted using water, acetonitrile and methanol.  The extracts were analyzed using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.  The photolysis products that have been identified for 2,6-DNT include 2,6-dinitrobenzyl alcohol, 2,6-dinitrobenzaldehyde, and 2,6-dinitrobenzyl nitrile.  The photolysis products that have been identified for 2,4-DNT include 2,4-dinitrobenzyl alcohol, 2,4-dinitrobenzaldehyde, and 2,4-dinitrobenzyl nitrile.

Determination of products formed by the photolysis of 2,4-dinitrotoluene and 2,6-dinitrotoluene in solutions containing dissolved ionic compounds

245th National Meeting (2013)

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