Capillary gas chromatographic analysis of nerve agents using large volume injections.

The use of large volume injections has been studied for the verification of intact organophosphorus chemical warfare agents in water samples. As the use of ethyl acetate caused severe detection problems new potential solvents were evaluated. With the developed procedure, the nerve agents sarin, tabun, soman, DFP and VX can be determined in freshly prepared water samples at ppt levels. Except for the nerve agent tabun all other agents added to the water samples were still present after 8 days at 20-60% levels, if the pH of the water sample is adjusted to ca. 5 shortly after sampling and adjusted to pH 7 for analysis.