APPLICATION OF HEADSPACE ANALYSIS, SOLVENT-EXTRACTION, THERMAL-DESORPTION AND GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY TO THE ANALYSIS OF CHEMICAL WARFARE SAMPLES CONTAINING SULFUR MUSTARD AND RELATED-COMPOUNDS
Rm. Black et al., APPLICATION OF HEADSPACE ANALYSIS, SOLVENT-EXTRACTION, THERMAL-DESORPTION AND GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY TO THE ANALYSIS OF CHEMICAL WARFARE SAMPLES CONTAINING SULFUR MUSTARD AND RELATED-COMPOUNDS, Journal of chromatography, 637(1), 1993, pp. 71-80
Samples of soil, munition fragments and wool, associated with a chemic
al warfare incident involving sulphur mustard, were analysed using hea
dspace, solvent extraction and thermal desorption techniques combined
with full scanning gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Quantitative
analysis was undertaken for sulphur mustard, mustard sulphoxide and th
iodiglycol, using solvent extraction and gas chromatography-mass spect
rometry with selected ion monitoring. In a soil sample contaminated at
ppm (w/w) levels all methods gave positive results for mustard and re
lated compounds. Selected ion monitoring and thermal desorption were t
he more useful techniques at low ppb (w/w) levels. Cyclic decompositio
n products 1,4-thioxane and 1,4-dithiane appear to be useful indicator
s of mustard contamination when using thermal desorption analysis. The
hydrolysis product thiodiglycol and hydrolysis/elimination product 2-
(vinylthio)ethanol appear to be useful indicators of mustard contamina
tion in soil samples when employing extraction methods.