Multivariate Analysis for the Electrochemical Discrimination and Quantitation of Nitroaromatic Explosives

A chemometric approach for the discrimination and quantification of nitroaromatic explosives is presented. The multivariate analysis of the square‐wave voltammetric data of trinitrotoluene, 2,6‐dinitrotoluene, 2,4‐dinitrotoluene, and 2‐nitrotoluene reduction was employed to extract subtle differences in the electrochemical response across multiple potentials on a bare glassy carbon, aminophenyl‐modified glassy carbon, and carboxylphenyl‐modified glassy carbon electrode surfaces allowing the electrochemical discrimination of the four different nitroaromatic analytes. A multivariate regression model was developed to differentiate and predict the concentrations of the structural isomers 2,6‐dinitrotoluene, and 2,4‐dinitrotoluene in mixture solutions.