Fragmentation pathways and structural characterization of 14 nerve agent compounds by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.

Organophosphate nerve agents (OPNAs) are some of the most widely used and proliferated chemical warfare agents. As evidenced by recent events in Syria, these compounds remain a serious military and terrorist threat to human health because of their toxicity and the ease with which they can be used, produced and stored. There are over 2,000 known, scheduled compounds derived from common parent structures with many more possible. To address medical, forensic, attribution, remediation and other requirements, laboratory systems have been established to provide the capability to analyze 'unknown' samples for the presence of these compounds. Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometric methods have been validated and are routinely used in the analysis of samples for a very limited number of these compounds, but limited data exist characterizing the electrospray ionization (ESI) and mass spectrometric fragmentation pathways of the compound families. This report describes results from direct infusion ESI/MS, ESI/MS(2) and ESI/MS(3) analysis of 14 G and V agents, the major OPNA families, using an AB Sciex 4000 QTrap. Using a range of conditions, spectra were acquired and characteristic fragments identified. The results demonstrated that the reproducible and predictable fragmentation of these compounds by ESI/MS, ESI/MS(2) and ESI/MS(3) can be used to describe systematic fragmentation pathways specific to compound structural class. These fragmentation pathways, in turn, may be useful as a predictive tool in the analysis of samples by screening and confirmatory laboratories to identify related compounds for which authentic standards are not readily available.