Detailed investigation of the radical-induced destruction of chemical warfare agent simulants in aqueous solution.

The persistence of delivered chemical warfare agents (CWAs) in a variety of environmental matrices is of serious concern to both the military and civilian populations. Ultimately understanding all of the degradation pathways of the various CWAs in different environmental matrices is essential for determining whether native processes would offer sufficient decontamination of a particular material or if active chemical decontamination is required. Whereas much work on base-promoted chemical degradation has been reported, additional remediation strategies such as the use of advanced oxidation or reduction process free radical treatments may also be a viable option. We have examined here the primary kinetics and reaction mechanisms for an extensive library of chemical warfare agent simulants with the oxidizing hydroxyl radical and reducing hydrated electrons in water. From these values, it is seen that the reductive destruction occurs primarily through a single mechanism, consisting of hydrated electron capture at the phosphorus group with subsequent elimination, whereas hydroxyl radical oxidation shows two separate reaction mechanisms, dependent on the aqueous pK(a) of the leaving group.