Detection of sulfur mustard simulants using the microwave atmospheric pressure plasma optical emission spectroscopy method

Dexin Xu; Cong Li; Liu Yang; Wenchao Zhu; Bangdou Huang; Cheng Zhang; Tao Shao

doi:10.3389/fchem.2023.1173870

Detection of sulfur mustard simulants using the microwave atmospheric pressure plasma optical emission spectroscopy method

Front Chem. 2023 Jun 2:11:1173870. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2023.1173870. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Dexin Xu¹, Cong Li¹, Liu Yang¹, Wenchao Zhu¹, Bangdou Huang², Cheng Zhang^{2

3}, Tao Shao^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of NBC Protection for Civilian, Beijing, China.
² Beijing International S&T Cooperation Base for Plasma Science and Energy Conversion, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Sulfur mustard (SM) is one kind of highly toxic chemical warfare agent and easy to spread, while existing detection methods cannot fulfill the requirement of rapid response, good portability, and cost competitiveness at the same time. In this work, the microwave atmospheric pressure plasma optical emission spectroscopy (MW-APP-OES) method, taking the advantage of non-thermal equilibrium, high reactivity, and high purity of MW plasma, is developed to detect three kinds of SM simulants, i.e., 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide, dipropyl disulfide, and ethanethiol. Characteristic OES from both atom lines (C I and Cl I) and radical bands (CS, CH, and C₂) is identified, confirming MW-APP-OES can preserve more information about target agents without full atomization. Gas flow rate and MW power are optimized to achieve the best analytical results. Good linearity is obtained from the calibration curve for the CS band (linear coefficients R ² > 0.995) over a wide range of concentrations, and a limit of detection down to sub-ppm is achieved with response time on the order of second. With SM simulants as examples, the analytical results in this work indicate that MW-APP-OES is a promising method for real-time and in-site detection of chemical warfare agents.

Keywords: atmospheric pressure plasma; microwave plasma; optical emission spectroscopy; toxic agents; trace detection.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Numbers 52022096 and 52277167) and the Young Elite Scientist Sponsorship Program by CAST (Grant Number YESS20210402).