Oxidative derivatization of V-type nerve agents as a tool for their structural elucidation by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.
Journal
Rapid communications in mass spectrometry : RCM
ISSN: 1097-0231
Titre abrégé: Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom
Pays: England
ID NLM: 8802365
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2022
2022
Historique:
revised:
18
10
2021
received:
09
09
2021
accepted:
27
10
2021
pubmed:
2
11
2021
medline:
2
11
2021
entrez:
1
11
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The identification of V-type nerve agents poses an analytical challenge. Their spectra obtained by electron ionization mass spectrometry (EI-MS) and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) are dominated by ions originating from the N,N-dialkylaminoethyl moiety, while ions representative of the alkyl phosphonothiolate part are absent from the spectra or present at negligible abundance. Hence, analogs or isomers with the same amine residue exhibit similar mass spectral patterns, leading to unavoidable ambiguity in their identification. Chemical derivatization was utilized for the structural elucidation of a series of five V-type nerve agents, including O-ethyl S-(2-diisopropylamino)ethyl methylalkyl phosphonothiolate (VX), O-isobutyl S-(2-diethylamino)ethyl methylalkyl phosphonothiolate (RVX) and O-ethyl S-(2-diethylamino)ethyl methylalkyl phosphonothiolate (VM). The procedure consisted of "in-vial" oxidation of the tertiary amine group with 3-chloroperbenzoic acid (m-CPBA) at ambient temperature followed by liquid chromatography (LC)/Orbitrap-ESI-MS/MS analysis with no other sample preparation. The generated N-oxide of the V-type nerve agents altered the charge distribution occurring during fragmentation and produced informative ESI-MS/MS spectra characteristic of the alkyl phosphonothiolate structure, enabling a higher degree of certainty in their identification. Moreover, two VX isomers possessing an identical tertiary amine moiety that coeluted at practically the same retention time and displayed high mass spectral similarity were easily differentiated, and their structures elucidated once derivatized. In contrast to the ESI-MS/MS spectra of the V-type nerve agents, which exhibited mostly/only information on the amine-containing residue, the ESI-MS/MS spectra of the V-type nerve agent N-oxides revealed ions indicative of both the alkyl phosphonothiolate and the amine parts, enabling their reliable structural elucidation.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e9216Informations de copyright
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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