Chromatographic analysis of chemical compounds related to the Chemical Weapons Convention

The review of recent advances and trends in the chromatographic (GC, HPLC, CE) analysis of substances, which are of the concern of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) as well as CBRN reconnaissance and protection against Chemical Warfare Agents (CWA), has been performed. The study covers the open source literature analysis after the time when the CWC came into force (1997). During last fifteen years, an increased number of laboratories and scientists have been engaged in the area of trace analysis of CWA and related substances. The identification of low level concentration of CWA has been successfully performed by many authors in air, water, soil and biological samples. At present the level of detection of nerve and blister agents has reached satisfactory limits. The trends we noticed are: (i) the lowering the limit detection of chromatographic techniques of analysis, (ii) simplifying the whole procedure and process of analysis, (iii) increased reliability, and (iv) reducing the duration of the whole analysis. More and more attention is paid to the analysis of biological samples with the purpose of identification and quantitation of CWA (mainly nerve agents – sarin, VX – and blister agents – sulfur mustard) as well as their metabolites in blood, serum, plasma and other matrices. A great challenge is the analysis of decontamination products of CWA and hazard residues after decontamination. Finally we discuss recent achievements and gaps in development of sample preparation, implementation of new detectors, derivatization and trace analysis of CWA metabolites in environmental and biological samples.