Analysis of degradation products of chemical warfare agents using capillary electrophoresis

Analysis of chemical warfare agents (CWAs), their precursors and degradation products (DPs) is an important verification component in support of the Chemical Weapons Convention and urgently demanding rapid and reliable analytical methods. Considering a growing number of papers presented in the last years in the field of capillary electrophoresis (CE) of DPs, this review article gives an overview on CE techniques which are feasible for the determination of DPs with the advantages of using relatively simple and inexpensive research instrumentation, reduced consumption of potentially toxic samples, shorter sample preparation times, etc. A brief introduction is provided into the chemical background of CWAs followed by a documented appraisal that the CE method is well suited to deal with polar, acidic DPs mostly occurring in aqueous samples or extracts. Applications of CE to the separation of DPs are described, complemented by a critical discussion of the detection techniques, including mostly conductivity, laser-induced fluorescence, UV absorption and mass spectrometry. This review also includes actual development regarding the challenges of CE in analyses of different DPs from real samples, often avoided by in- and off-line pre-concentration techniques or the coupling of CE to selective detection methods. Special emphasis is placed on the miniaturised CE systems that have the potential of being before long developed into a field deployable and potentially disposable platform for routine DP monitoring in environmental samples.