Chemical warfare agents chromatographic analysis

Z. Witkiewicz, M. Mazurek and J. Szulc, Chromatographic analysis of chemical warfare agents, J. Chromatogr., 503, 293-357 (1990). 

M.T. Sng and W.F. Ng, In-situ derivatisation of degradation products of chemical warfare agents in water by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis, J. Chromatogr. A, 832, 173-182 (1999). 

K. Schoene, J. Steinhanses, H.-J. Bruckert and A. Konig, Speciation of arsenic-containing chemical warfare agents by gas chromatographic analysis after derivatization with thioglycolic acid methyl ester, J. Chromatogr., 605, 257-262 (1992). 

R.M. Black and R. Muir, Derivatisation reactions in the chromatographic analysis of chemical warfare agents and their degradation products, J. Chromatogr., A, 1000, 253-281 (2003). 

Witkiewicz et al have comprehensively reviewed the application of chromatographic methods to the analysis of chemical warfare agents. A brief overview is presented below with the emphasis on applications in verification analysis and pharmacokinetic studies. 

Haas, R. Krippendorf, A. Determination of chemical warfare agents in soil and material samples Gas chromatographic analysis of phenylarsenic compounds (Stemutators). Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 1997, 4 (3), 123-124. 

There are more approaches to the analysis of chemical warfare agents than just the chromatographic or mass spec-trometric based techniques. These include nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) or spectrophotometric detection. Additional approaches similar to GC, LC and MS are capillary electrophoresis (CE) and ion mobility spectroscopy (IMS). This chapter describes the instrumentation used to analyse and detect chemical warfare agents, from the simplest of techniques to the more complex, which allow for precise and accurate detection at very low levels. The authors have tried to be as comprehensive as possible in outlining the various methods utilized however, it is understood that because of the implications of GW As, there may be proprietary or classified methods, not yet in the public domain. 

OP compounds and carbamate are widely used as insecticides, pesticides, and warfare agents [20,21], Detection of pesticides is usually carried out by multiresidue methods (MRMs) of analysis, which are able to detect simultaneously more than one residue and have been developed mainly based on chromatographic techniques. Two groups of MRMs are used (i) multiclass MRMs that involve coverage of residues of various classes of pesticides, and (ii) selective MRMs, which concern multiple residues of chemically related pesticides (e.g., IV-methyl carbamate pesticides (NMCs), carboxylic acids, phenols, etc.). As foods are usually complex matrices all of the pre-analytical steps (matrix modification, extraction, and clean-up) are often necessary. 

---