Rapid detection of sulfur mustard hydrolysis products based on microextraction by packed sorbent combined with nano-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

Abstract

Sulfur mustard is a blister agent prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the detection of its hydrolysis product, thiodiglycol (TDG), is an important indicator of blister agent contamination. Due to the poor volatility and low extraction efficiency of TDG, derivatization gas chromatography or liquid chromatography is required for conventional methods, and the detection process is cumbersome and time-consuming. A microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) device and a nano-electrospray ionization (nano-ESI) device were used. The central composite design (CCD) model of Response Surface Methodology was used to optimize the elution procedure; the variance analysis under equal repeated trials with multiple factors was used to quantitatively analyze the significance of the impact of related factors on the nano-ESI efficiency. The MEPS-nano-ESI-MS experimental conditions were optimized. A new detection method of sulfur mustard hydrolysis products in water based on MEPS-nano-ESI-MS was established; the detection limit was 1ng/mL and was linear between 5ng/mL and 100 ng/mL (R2 = 0.9911) with a precision of ≤7.2%, and the recovery rate was 107.89% when the sample concentration was 40 ng/mL. The experimental results showed that the proposed method could quickly detect the contaminated water samples without chromatographic separation and derivatization, thereby verifying the contamination of sulfur mustard on site.