TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2018//
TI  - Mass spectral studies of N-oxides of chemical weapons convention-related aminoethanols by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry after silylation
JO  - European journal of mass spectrometry (Chichester, England)
A1  - Sony, T.
A1  - Sridhar, L.
A1  - Sai Sachin, L.
A1  - Lakshmi, Vvs
A1  - Prabhakar, S.
SP  - 1469066718805233
EP  - 1469066718805233
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - N-Alkylaminoethanols, N,N'-dialkylaminoethanols, and triethanolamine are the hydrolyzed products or precursors of V-agents/nitrogen mustards. These compounds are prone to undergo oxidation in environmental matrices. Detection of the oxidized products provides a clue for the presence of parent amine compounds and it is an important task in the verification process of chemical weapons convention. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry is the technique of choice for the detection of most of the chemical warfare agents; however, it is ideal to develop gas chromatography/mass spectrometry techniques for all the possible degradation products of chemical warfare agents as well. In general, the N-oxides of amines are expected to be thermally unstable; hence, the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of the N-oxides of triethanolamine, N-alkyldiethanolamines and N,N'-dialkylaminoethanols is not explored. In this study, the N-oxides of chemical weapons convention-related aminoethanols (13 compounds) were successfully silylated and then analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry under electron ionization and chemical ionization techniques. The electron ionization mass spectra showed abundant molecular ions and structure indicative fragment ions including [M-(O+CH<sub>2</sub>CH<sub>2</sub>OH)]<sup>+</sup>. The alkyl groups attached to nitrogen resulted in structure-specific fragment ions that enable differentiation of isomeric compounds. The methane/chemical ionization spectra showed considerably abundant [M+H]<sup>+</sup> (>10%) and the expected adduct ions. The retention indices of all the compounds were calculated using Van den Dool's formula. The gas chromatography/mass spectrometry data together with retention index values could be used for unambiguous identification of the N-oxides of aminoethanols during off-site analysis or proficiency tests.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1469-0667
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469066718805233
ID  - ref1
ER  -