Thermal separation to facilitate Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) of mixtures.

We explore a thermal separation technique for use with Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART). By applying gas temperature ramping, we are able to disburse a mixture of compounds in time. The three components were selected to create a challenging mixture that would not likely be discerned solely using exact mass capabilities. While the thermal separation technique is of low resolution, it preserves the inherent rapid, non-contact, ambient characteristics of the ion source.

Ricin activity assay by direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry detection of adenine release.

Biotoxin activity assays typically involve multistep sample preparation, multicomponent reactions, multistep analysis, or a combination thereof. We report a single-step, real-time ricin activity assay that requires little or no sample preparation and employs direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry. The release of adenine from the inhomogeneous substrate herring sperm DNA by ricin was determined to be 53 +/- 2 pmol adenine per picomole of ricin per hour. This procedure can be readily adapted to any enzyme for which a reactant or product of low molecular weight (up to approximately 600) can be identified.

Quantitation of chemical warfare agents using the direct analysis in real time (DART) technique.

Direct analysis in real time (DART) is an ion source that permits rapid mass spectrometric detection of gases, liquids, and solids in open air under ambient conditions. It is a unique technology in the field of chemical weapons detectors in that it does not require a vapor pressure, does not require sample preparation, and is nondestructive to the original sample. While the DART technique has had success as a first line instrument of detection, there have been lingering doubts over the technique's quantitative reliability and reproducibility. Here, we demonstrate its capability to produce linear calibration curves (R(2) = 0.99 or better) for the nerve agents GA, GB, and VX as well as the blister agent HD. Independently prepared check standards measured against these curves typically have recovery errors less than 3%. We show the DART instrument response to be linear over roughly 3 orders of magnitude. Furthermore, this study shows that averaging as few as three measurements for each data point is sufficient to produce high quality calibration curves, thus reducing data collection time and providing quicker results.

A decontamination system for chemical weapons agents using a liquid solution on a solid sorbent.

A decontamination system for chemical warfare agents was developed and tested that combines a liquid decontamination reagent solution with solid sorbent particles. The components have fewer safety and environmental concerns than traditional chlorine bleach-based products or highly caustic solutions. The liquid solution, based on Decon Greentrade mark, has hydrogen peroxide and a carbonate buffer as active ingredients. The best solid sorbents were found to be a copolymer of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate and n-lauryl methacrylate (Polytrap 6603 Adsorber); or an allyl methacrylate cross-linked polymer (Poly-Pore E200 Adsorber). These solids are human and environmentally friendly and are commonly used in cosmetics. The decontaminant system was tested for reactivity with pinacolyl methylphosphonofluoridate (Soman, GD), bis(2-chloroethyl)sulfide (Mustard, HD), and S-(2-diisopropylaminoethyl) O-ethyl methylphosphonothioate (VX) by using NMR Spectroscopy. Molybdate ion (MoO(4)(-2)) was added to the decontaminant to catalyze the oxidation of HD. The molybdate ion provided a color change from pink to white when the oxidizing capacity of the system was exhausted. The decontaminant was effective for ratios of agent to decontaminant of up to 1:50 for VX (t(1/2) < or = 4 min), 1:10 for HD (t(1/2) < 2 min with molybdate), and 1:10 for GD (t(1/2) < 2 min). The vapor concentrations of GD above the dry sorbent and the sorbent with decontamination solution were measured to show that the sorbent decreased the vapor concentration of GD. The E200 sorbent had the additional advantage of absorbing aqueous decontamination solution without the addition of an organic co-solvent such as isopropanol, but the rate depended strongly on mixing for HD.

Versatile new ion source for the analysis of materials in open air under ambient conditions.

A new ion source has been developed for rapid, noncontact analysis of materials at ambient pressure and at ground potential. The new source, termed DART (for "Direct Analysis in Real Time"), is based on the reactions of electronic or vibronic excited-state species with reagent molecules and polar or nonpolar analytes. DART has been installed on a high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS) that provides improved selectivity and accurate elemental composition assignment through exact mass measurements. Although DART has been applied to the analysis of gases, liquids, and solids, a unique application is the direct detection of chemicals on surfaces without requiring sample preparation, such as wiping or solvent extraction. DART has demonstrated success in sampling hundreds of chemicals, including chemical agents and their signatures, pharmaceutics, metabolites, peptides and oligosaccharides, synthetic organics, organometallics, drugs of abuse, explosives, and toxic industrial chemicals. These species were detected on various surfaces, such as concrete, asphalt, human skin, currency, airline boarding passes, business cards, fruits, vegetables, spices, beverages, body fluids, horticultural leaves, cocktail glasses, and clothing. DART employs no radioactive components and is more versatile than devices using radioisotope-based ionization. Because its response is instantaneous, DART provides real-time information, a critical requirement for screening or high throughput.

Partial shell-filled core-shell tecto(dendrimers): a strategy to surface differentiated nano-clefts and cusps.

Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer shell reagents possessing either nucleophilic (i.e., primary amines) or electrophilic (i.e., carboxymethyl esters) functional groups have been covalently assembled around appropriate electrophilic or nucleophilic dendrimer core reagents to produce partial shell filled/core-shell tecto(dendrimers). Partial shell-filled products with saturation levels ranging from 28% to 66% were obtained. These metastable, remarkably monodispersed assemblies possess functionally differentiated nano-cusps and clefts that exhibit "autoreactive" behavior. Pacification of these autoreactive products with appropriate alkanolamine reagents produced robust, nonreactive, "hydroxy-amine-differentiated" surfaces that exhibit very active self-assembly properties. Based on the monodispersity, dimensional scaling, and electrophoretic similarities of PAMAM dendrimers to globular proteins, these assemblies may be viewed as crude biomimetics of classical core shell-type protein aggregates. These dimensionally larger, but analogous PAMAM core-shell tecto(dendrimer) architectures extend and complete a similar pattern of autoreactivity and pacification that was observed earlier for traditional mono PAMAM dendrimer core-shell modules possessing unsaturated shell levels.

Structure of and electronic interactions in aromatic polyvalent iodine compounds: A 13 C NMR study.

Available data on the structures, electronic substituent effects and 13 C NMR spectra of aromatic polyvalent iodine compounds, particularly iodoso and iodoxy derivatives, are summarized and discussed. A series of aromatic tri- and penta-valent iodine compounds were synthesized, their 13 C NMR spectra were measured and the substituent chemical shifts (SCS) for several polyvalent iodine functional groups were calculated. As the oxidation state of iodine increases (I → II → V), the strong shielding of the ipso-carbon atom by iodine in aryl iodides due to the 'heavy-atom effect' (30 ppm) decreases substantially, and this decrease is apparently general for stable hypervalent iodine compounds. Possible explanations are discussed and correlations between chemical shifts, structures and/or electronic effects are proposed.

Lysis of red blood cells by extracts from benthic dinoflagellates

Samples of the cultured benthic dinoflagellates Gambierdiscus toxicus and Ostreopsis lenticularis, both isolated from a shalow back reef habitat in soutwestern Puerto Rico, were estracted in methanol, dried and resuspended in distilled water. After centrifugation, aliquots of the supernatant, or dilutions thereof, were added to suspensions of washed human and mouse red blood cells and incuated at different temperatures for different time periods. Further spectrophotometrical examinations of the samples showed a hemolytic activity aginst mouse and human red blood cells. The hemolytic activity of G. toxicus extract was 3 to 4 times greater than that of O. lenticularis and was less temperature-dependent. Such findings suggest that these two dinoflagellates produce chemically different hemolysins