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Recovery of wipe sampling of urban surfaces contaminated with blistering chemical warfare agents

  • Tomáš Rozsypal EMAIL logo and Václav Nekvinda
Published/Copyright: December 8, 2023
Pure and Applied Chemistry
From the journal Pure and Applied Chemistry Volume 96 Issue 3

Abstract

Effective sampling is a key step in the process of proving the use of chemical weapons. An alternative to collecting the respective sample is to perform a wipe of surface contamination. This work deals with the optimization of the wiping process of the surfaces of selected matrices contaminated with bis(2-chloroethyl)sulfide and tris(2-chloroethyl)amine. Optimization of the procedure was carried out in terms of the choice of wiping material, wetting solvent and extraction of the wiped contaminant. Furthermore, the time decrease of surface contamination was monitored. The effect of transport on the change in the observed recovery value was investigated and the measurement deviations of the wipe method were discussed. The resulting values of observed recovery were negatively influenced by the volatility of the analyte, the porosity of the matrix and the time that passed since the contamination. Viscose was evaluated as the most effective wipe material. Low relative standard deviations (≤7 %) were achieved with this material. The optimal wetting solvent was dichloromethane. There was no degradation of contaminants on the surface of the matrices, so the fate was only affected by evaporation and penetration into the material.

Keywords: Chemical weapons; field analysis; gas chromatography; mustard gas; surface contamination; VCCA-2023
Corresponding author: Tomáš Rozsypal, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence Institute, University of Defence, Vita Nejedleho 691, 68203 Vyskov, Czech Republic, e-mail:
Article note: A collection of invited papers based on presentations at the Virtual Conference on Chemistry and its Applications 2023 (VCCA-2023).

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the staff of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Military Technologies of the University of Defence for surface morphology analysis. Namely thanks to prof. Zdenek Pokorny, Vojtech Calkovsky and Michaela Krchova.

  1. Research funding: The work was financed from the resources of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic within the framework of the student grant competition project “Sampling and analysis of urban debris as evidence samples after the use of chemical weapons”.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2023-1012).

Published Online: 2023-12-08
Published in Print: 2024-03-25

© 2023 IUPAC & De Gruyter

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. In this issue
  3. Preface
  4. The virtual conference on chemistry and its applications, VCCA-2023, 7–11 August 2023
  5. Special topic papers
  6. Recovery of wipe sampling of urban surfaces contaminated with blistering chemical warfare agents
  7. Bioremediation of cadmium contaminated soil by tea waste and impact on the accumulation of Cd in Helianthus annuus
  8. Exploring the potential of Meldrum’s acid-bearing chain extenders for mechanical recycling of PET
  9. In silico and in vitro profiling of coumarins and flavonoids for anti-Alzheimer and antioxidant activity
  10. MTT assay of human anti-breast cancer cells (MCF-7) in vitro potentials and phytochemicals screening of the root bark extracts from Cassia sieberiana
  11. Synthesis of some chalcones derivatives series and their antituberculosis activity
  12. Luminescence of silver, thulium and ytterbium doped oxyfluoride glasses
  13. Two new naturally dimers constituent from Indonesian Sesbania grandiflora plant and their bioactivity
  14. Antidiabetic and antibacterial activities of artocarpin: a flavonoid compound isolated from the root wood of the Pudau plant (Artocarpus kemando Miq.)
  15. Unraveling the influence of biomaterial’s functional groups in Cd biosorption: a density functional theory calculation
  16. Synthesis, characterization, and bioactivity test of dibutyltin(IV) dihydroxyibenzoate as disinfectant agent
  17. Computational investigation of thallium interactions with functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes for electrochemical sensing applications
  18. Conversion of elemental phosphorus under the electron beam irradiation
  19. Advances in understanding comproportionation and disproportionation in nickel catalysis
https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2023-1012
Keywords for this article
Chemical weapons; field analysis; gas chromatography; mustard gas; surface contamination; VCCA-2023

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. In this issue
  3. Preface
  4. The virtual conference on chemistry and its applications, VCCA-2023, 7–11 August 2023
  5. Special topic papers
  6. Recovery of wipe sampling of urban surfaces contaminated with blistering chemical warfare agents
  7. Bioremediation of cadmium contaminated soil by tea waste and impact on the accumulation of Cd in Helianthus annuus
  8. Exploring the potential of Meldrum’s acid-bearing chain extenders for mechanical recycling of PET
  9. In silico and in vitro profiling of coumarins and flavonoids for anti-Alzheimer and antioxidant activity
  10. MTT assay of human anti-breast cancer cells (MCF-7) in vitro potentials and phytochemicals screening of the root bark extracts from Cassia sieberiana
  11. Synthesis of some chalcones derivatives series and their antituberculosis activity
  12. Luminescence of silver, thulium and ytterbium doped oxyfluoride glasses
  13. Two new naturally dimers constituent from Indonesian Sesbania grandiflora plant and their bioactivity
  14. Antidiabetic and antibacterial activities of artocarpin: a flavonoid compound isolated from the root wood of the Pudau plant (Artocarpus kemando Miq.)
  15. Unraveling the influence of biomaterial’s functional groups in Cd biosorption: a density functional theory calculation
  16. Synthesis, characterization, and bioactivity test of dibutyltin(IV) dihydroxyibenzoate as disinfectant agent
  17. Computational investigation of thallium interactions with functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes for electrochemical sensing applications
  18. Conversion of elemental phosphorus under the electron beam irradiation
  19. Advances in understanding comproportionation and disproportionation in nickel catalysis
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