Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry

, Volume 393, Issue 8, pp 1949–1956 | Cite as

Screening hydrolysis products of sulfur mustard agents by high-performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry detection

Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
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Abstract

Sulfur mustard (HD), bis(2-chloroethyl)sulfide, is one of a class of mustard agents which are chemical warfare agents. The main chemical warfare hydrolysis degradation products of sulfur mustards are: thiodiglycol, bis(2-hydroxyethylthio)methane, 1,2-bis(2-hydroxyethylthio)ethane, 1,3-bis(2-hydroxyethylthio)propane, and 1,4-bis(2-hydroxyethylthio)butane. The aim of this study is to identify these five hydrolysis degradation products utilizing reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for element-specific sulfur detection using a collision/reaction cell and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry to confirm the identification. To date, this is the first study utilizing ICP-MS with 32S element-specific detection for the analysis of vesicant chemical warfare agent degradation products.

Keywords

ICP-MS ESI-MS Displacement chromatography Mustard gas Displacer Sulfur detection 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of ChemistryUniversity of CincinnatiCincinnatiUSA

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