Oral Presentation Royal Australian Chemical Institute National Congress 2026

2D and 3D Diffusion-Ordered NMR Spectroscopy Techniques for th Chemical Forensic Profiling of Organophosphorus Nerve Agents (136788)

Renee Webster 1 , Emily Green 2 , Roger Mulder 1 , Simon Ovenden 3 , Jo Cosgriff 1 , Jayde Samuels 3 , Nathan McGill 4
  1. CSIRO, Clayton, VIC, Australia
  2. Kings College, London
  3. Defence Science and Technology Group, Fishermans Bend
  4. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Nootdorp

The ongoing use of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) in conflicts, assassinations, and terrorist attacks means that the detection and identification of these compounds are crucial. Many traditional analytical techniques are destructive and require lengthy sample preparation, therefore the development and validation of new analytical methods is essential. Here, compounds that are both precursor and degradation products of novichok analogues have been characterised using 2D 1H-13C heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence (HMQC) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The detection and identification of these compounds is vital for understanding the structures of Novichok analogues and to allow efficient analysis and identification using a non-destructive method. Furthermore, mixtures of compounds related to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) were analysed using 2D 1H diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) and 3D 1H-13C DOSY-HMQC NMR experiments, which proved useful for analysing compounds related to organophosphorus nerve agents, indicating their potential effectiveness in assessing real CWAs.