Metal Ion-Catalyzed Alcoholysis as a Strategy for the High Loading Destruction of Chemical Warfare Organophosphorus Agents

Abstract

Metal-catalyzed alcoholysis has proven to be an effective strategy for the rapid transformation of neutral reactive organophosphate esters of the phosphate, phosphonate, phosphorothioate, and phosphonothioate classes. This chemistry, using La(expn 3+) ( OMe)/Methanol as catalyst/solvent, applied to the V and G classes of chemical warfare agents, demonstrated extremely rapid transformation to low toxicity esters with load factors of ~30% for non-fluoride-releasing agents. Variation of the alcohol solvent is tolerated. Variations of the metal catalyst provide potential redress to the fluoride inhibition of the G agent class. These observations indicate that formulations based on mixed alcohol solvents combined with optimized metal catalysts for use in field decontamination, civilian security, and infrastructure scenarios provide a pathway for tuning the reaction media while retaining extremely rapid destruction kinetics.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA587633

Entities

People

  • Alexei A. Neverov
  • Andrea Tamer
  • H. Dupont Durst
  • R. S. Brown

Organizations

  • Edgewood Chemical Biological Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Alcohols
  • Chemical Analysis
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemical Warfare
  • Chemical Warfare Agents
  • Chemical Weapons
  • Chemistry
  • G Agents
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Nerve Agents
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Organophosphates
  • Spectrometry

Readers

  • Neurotoxicology
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Strategic Security Studies