Kristofer Wright, Sean McGonigal, Tyson Morgan

Nitroglycerin is one of the most critical energizers in a double base gunpowder. This report aims to confirm the identity of an unknown sample of gunpowder by comparison of nitroglycerin content to IMR 700x by GCMS due to its use in other reported literature. This is import to the safe use of the powder. Nitrosol 0.6 mg sublingual tablets were used as a standard for comparison. A SIM mode selection of m/z (30, 46, 76, 89, 90. 101. 103.165. 169) was selected based on detected components in preliminary testing. Samples were run on a HP 5890 Series II chromatograph with an HP 5971A MS. It is determined that the unknown powder was not IMR 700x. The low number of runs may have contributed to a large degree of variability which could have impacted a false positive. There is also the possibility that unforeseen matric effects impacted detection of both fragments, altering the calibration curves. Further studies are needed to examine these factors.