Sarin characteristics

Characteristics Nerve agents are liquid under temperate conditions, but, when dispersed, the more volatile ones constitute both a vapor and a liquid hazard. However, the less volatile nerve agents represent primarily a liquid hazard (mainly, the G-agents are more volatile than the nerve agent VX, while sarin (GB) is the most volatile and nerve agent GF is the least volatile of the so-called G-agents. GB has an LCt-50 of 100 (vapor toxicity of mg-min/m3), an ICt-50 of 75 (vapor toxicity of mg-min/m30, and an MCt-50 of 3 (vapor toxicity of mg-min/m3). The LD-50 on skin is 1700mg. 

An analysis of the topological characteristics of electron density was performed for the studied Sarin-magnesium oxide complexes following Bader s Atoms in Molecules Theory (AIM).82 This analysis can be used to characterize hydrogen bonding solely from the charge density. There have been formulated several effects... 

Interaction of CarbE with nerve agents follows a kinetic of first order characterized by inhibition of CarbE at the active site serine residue described by a bimolecular rate constant, ki (Maxwell and Brecht, 2001). For noncharged nerve agents (e.g. sarin and soman) the ki of rat serum CarbE was found to be >10 M min whereas cationic substrates (e.g. VX) are converted with poor reactivity (ki < 10" M min ). This specificity is explained by the electrostatic characteristics of the large active site containing only a few cation-II bonding and anionic residues (Maxwell and Brecht, 2001 Satoh and Hosokawa, 2006). 

Sarin in water may be analyzed by gas chromatography after extraction with chloroform. Using an internal standard linearity was determined to faU in the range 10-1000 ppb with flame photometric detector (Shih and Ellin 1986). Flame photometric or a nitrogen-phosphorus detector should be operated in the phosphorus-specific mode. A fused-silica capillary GC column should be effi-cienf in separation. Sarin may be analyzed by GC/MS. The primary mass ion is 99. Ofher characteristic mass ions are 125, 81,43, and 79. 

GF is a highly toxic nerve agent. It is a potent inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase and a neurotoxicant. The toxic symptoms are characteristics of sarin and other similar organophosphates. The toxicity is lower than GA, GB, GD, and VX. 

C-1 Composition of Eiqnid Waste Streams from the EDS Treatment of Sarin (GB) Bomblets at RMA, 50 D-1 Toxicity Characteristics of Energetic Componnds, 53 E-1 System for Accessing Chemical Mnnitions, 58... 

Figures 8A and 8B illustrates the FTIR vapor phase data obtained for sarin and mustard, respectively. Sarin exhibits characteristic absorption bands at 2991, 1313, 1018, 924, and 843 cm due to C-H, P-F or P = O, P-O-C, P-CH3, and P-F, respectively. Mustard contains bands at 2969 and 717cm- that can be assigned to C-H and C-Cl, respectively. The spectra for other chemical warfare agents differ sufficiently such that library searching may be routinely employed for tentative identification.

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