Polymeric Sorbent with Controlled Surface Polarity: An Alternate for Solid-Phase Extraction of Nerve Agents and Their Markers from Organic Matrix

Extraction and identification of lethal nerve agents and their markers in complex organic background have a prime importance from the forensic and verification viewpoint of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Liquid–liquid extraction with acetonitrile and commercially available solid phase silica cartridges are extensively used for this purpose. Silica cartridges exhibit limited applicability for relatively polar analytes, and acetonitrile extraction shows limited efficacy toward relatively nonpolar analytes. The present study describes the synthesis of polymeric sorbents with tunable surface polarity, their application as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) material against nerve agents and their polar as well as nonpolar markers from nonpolar organic matrices. In comparison with the acetonitrile extraction and commercial silica cartridges, the new sorbent showed better extraction efficiency toward analytes of varying polarity. The extraction parameters were optimized for the proposed method, which included ethyl acetate as an extraction solvent and <i>n</i>-hexane as a washing solvent. Under optimized conditions, method linearity ranged from 0.10 to 10 μg mL^–1 (<i>r</i>² = 0.9327–0.9988) for organophosphorus esters and 0.05–20 μg mL^–1 (<i>r</i>² = 0.9976–0.9991) for nerve agents. Limits of detection (S:N = 3:1) in the SIM mode were found in the range of 0.03–0.075 μg mL^–1 for organophosphorus esters and 0.015–0.025 μg mL^–1 for nerve agents. Limits of quantification (S:N = 10:1) were found in the range of 0.100–0.25 μg mL^–1 for organophosphorus esters and 0.05–0.100 μg mL^–1 for nerve agents in the SIM mode. The recoveries of the nerve agents and their markers ranged from 90.0 to 98.0% and 75.0 to 95.0% respectively. The repeatability and reproducibility (with relative standard deviations (RSDs) %) for organophosphorus esters were found in the range of 1.35–8.61% and 2.30–9.25% respectively. For nerve agents, the repeatability range from 1.00 to 7.75% and reproducibility were found in the range of 2.17–6.90%