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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

A General Method for Detecting Nitrosamide Formation in the In Vitro Metabolism of Nitrosamines by Cytochrome P450s
Published on: September 25, 2017
Reliable, rapid and simple voltammetric detection of urea nitrate explosive
Avi Cagan1, Donglai Lu, Karel Cizek
1The Biodesign Institute and Departments of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5801, USA.
Abstract:
A highly selective and rapid electrochemical assay of the improvised explosive urea nitrate (UN) is reported. The method involves a short ( approximately 10 s) acid-catalyzed reaction of UN with 4-nitrotoluene (NT) followed by a rapid ( approximately 2 s) square-wave voltammetric (SWV) detection of the 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT) product. The new protocol offers great promise for a reliable field detection of UN, with significant advantages of speed, sensitivity, portability, simplicity, and cost.
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