IDENTIFICATION OF DEGRADATION PRODUCTS OF SOME CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS BY CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS IONSPRAY MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Capillary zone electrophoresis-ionspray mass spectrometry (CZE-IS-MS) in the negative-ion mode was applied in the identification of five organophosphonic acids, which are the primary hydrolysis products of nerve agents. The spectra exhibit a very abundant (M - H)- ion with minimal fragmentation. Fragment ions were produced by raising the nozzle - skimmer voltage difference in the first vacuum stage between the atmospheric pressure ion source and the mass analyzer. CZE-IS-MS provides extremely good separation efficiency and very high sensitivity for the phosphonic acids. Sensitivity in the range 10-30 pg was achieved with standard solutions using selected ion monitoring. Linear regression analysis data showed correlation coefficients to be between 0.994 and 0.999, indicating good quantitative linearity of the method.