Ion chromatography-mass spectrometry: a review of recent technologies and applications in forensic and environmental explosives analysis.

•A critical review of the evolution of IC-MS and its application to low-order explosives detection.•Comprehensive comparison of reported method performances at the fg–μg level.•A review of auxiliary on-line approaches to maximise MS detector sensitivity.•A comparison of IC-MS to other confirmatory analytical technologies.•Emerging future areas for IC-MS in forensic and environmental explosives analysis.