Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of trifluoroacetyl derivatives of precursors of nitrogen and sulfur mustards for verification of chemical weapons convention

Trifluoroacetylation reactions were optimized for gas chromatography–mass spectrometric (GC–MS) analysis of precursors of nitrogen and sulfur mustards using newly developed N-trifluoroacetylbenzimidazole (TFABI) and known N-trifluoroacetylimidazole (TFAI) and N-trifluoroacetylbenzotriazole (TFABT) reagents. TFAI and TFABI gave the best results in terms of yields and reaction time. Trifluoroacetyl derivatives showed clean total ion chromatograms in GC–MS analysis than trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives. The negative ion chemical ionization analysis of these derivatives gave pseudo molecular weight information, with low limit of detection.