Simultaneous analysis of degradation products of Novichok agents and conventional nerve agents in human urine by ion chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry using ammonium regeneration solution

An ion chromatography (IC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) method to analyze nerve agent degradation products in human urine was developed. Six degradation products of conventional nerve agents and six Novichok agent degradation products were analyzed simultaneously despite their differences in hydrophilicity and acidity. Using ammonium regeneration solution improved the peak shapes greatly compared with the results obtained with the ordinary IC-MS/MS configuration. For urine samples, a simple pretreatment method of dilution with water and ultrafiltration was used. The detection limits of the nerve agent degradation products were sufficiently low (10-250 ng/mL) and the calibration curves showed acceptable linearity. Due to the absence of a derivatization step, throughput was higher than for our previous derivatization-liquid chromatography-MS/MS method.

Automated summary

A new ion chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the analysis of nerve agent degradation products in human urine. This method successfully detected six conventional nerve agent degradation products and six Novichok agent degradation products, despite their differences in hydrophilicity and acidity. By using an ammonium regeneration solution, the peak shapes were greatly improved compared to the results obtained with the ordinary IC-MS/MS configuration. The method also demonstrated low detection limits and acceptable linearity.