Abstract
The synthesis of the organophosphorus nerve agents sarin, tabun, and cyclohexyl methylphosphonofluoridate (GF) produces a mixture of two stereoisomers except for soman where four stereoisomers are produced. Significant differences exist in the reported toxicity and AChE inhibition rates of the various stereoisomers. This makes the ability to distinguish between the different stereoisomers desirable. Five different derivatized cyclodextrin stationary phases developed for gas chromatography were tested for their ability to resolve the nerve agent stereoisomers using a gas chromatograph interfaced to an atomic emission detector. Of the five columns that we examined, only the 2,6‐di‐O‐pentyl‐3‐O‐trifluoroacetyl or 2,6‐di‐O‐pentyl‐3‐O‐butyryl γ‐cyclodextrins were able to successfully resolve all four soman stereoisomers. The elution order for each column was determined using solutions of isolated soman stereoisomers. Enantiomers of sarin, tabun, and GF were resolved with varying degrees of success on the different cyclodextrin stationary phases. Only the butyryl γ‐cyclodextrin was able to separate the enantiomers of all four of the nerve agents examined in this study. The capacity (k) and selectivity (α) factors were determined for each of the chemical warfare agents successfully separated. The TNO Prins Maurits Laboratory in the Netherlands has previously developed several different chromatographic methods to resolve the stereoisomers of soman, sarin, and tabun. The advantage of the method described here is that commercially available cyclodextrin gas chromatography columns were used to resolve the stereoisomers, thereby facilitating rapid and routine analysis of organophosphorus nerve agents.