Determination of Acetonitrile-hexane Partition Coefficient of O,O'-dialkyl Methylphosphonates by NMR Spectroscopy for the Verification Analysis of Chemical Weapon Convention

Abstract

The extractability of the O,O'-dialkyl methylphosphonates, (the important markers of nerve agents) included in the schedule 2B4 of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) has been studied by NMR, the aim being the optimisation of extraction protocols routinely used for the identification of Convention-related Chemicals (CRCs) during Official Proficiency Tests (OPTs) conducted by the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and for the off-site analysis of real field samples. The technique is easy to optimise, fast, nondestructive, and shows excellent reproducibility.