Investigations of Explosives and Their Conjugated Transformation Products in Biotreatment Matrices.

Abstract : Samples of soil that had been aerobically composted or anaerobically digested were extracted with solvent, then hydrolyzed with base and then acid. The concentrations of extractable TNT and its monoamino and diamino transformation products fell rapidly after the first days of treatment. Hydrolysis of the solvent-extracted residues released significant quantities of intact transformation products. The concentrations of RDX and HMX were reduced in a similar fashion without the appearance of significant quantities of transformation products. A generalized approach to biotreatment matrices analyses was developed. Spike-recovery studies indicated that analyses of bioremediation matrices should be considered as a qualitative descriptor of the progress of humification and the capacity to covalently conjugate transformation products rather than as a quantitative measure of the absolute amounts of various analytes present.