title: Sensitive and comprehensive detection of chemical warfare agents in air by atmospheric pressure chemical ionization ion trap tandem mass spectrometry with counterflow introduction.
abstract: A highly sensitive and specific real-time field-deployable detection technology, based on counterflow air introduction atmospheric pressure chemical ionization, has been developed for a wide range of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) comprising gaseous (two blood agents, three choking agents), volatile (six nerve gases and one precursor agent, five blister agents), and nonvolatile (three lachrymators, three vomiting agents) agents in air. The approach can afford effective chemical ionization, in both positive and negative ion modes, for ion trap multiple-stage mass spectrometry (MS(n)). The volatile and nonvolatile CWAs tested provided characteristic ions, which were fragmented into MS(3) product ions in positive and negative ion modes. Portions of the fragment ions were assigned by laboratory hybrid mass spectrometry (MS) composed of linear ion trap and high-resolution mass spectrometers. Gaseous agents were detected by MS or MS(2) in negative ion mode. The limits of detection for a 1 s measurement were typically at or below the microgram per cubic meter level except for chloropicrin (submilligram per cubic meter). Matrix effects by gasoline vapor resulted in minimal false-positive signals for all the CWAs and some signal suppression in the case of mustard gas. The moisture level did influence the measurement of the CWAs.
authors.affiliation: National Research Institute of Police Science , Kashiwa, Chiba 277-0882, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sekiguchi
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maruko
authors.forename: Shigeharu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamashiro
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sano
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takayama
authors.forename: Ryoji
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sekioka
authors.forename: Shintaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Shintaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.forename: Takafumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sekiguchi
authors.forename: Kazumitsu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iura
authors.forename: Hisayuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.forename: Tomoki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagoya
authors.forename: Kouichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuge
authors.forename: Isaac
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ohsawa
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okumura
authors.forename: Yasuaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takada
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ezawa
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D002619:Chemical Warfare Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D002619:Chemical Warfare Agents