ArticleAnalytical chemistry2026
Direct Mass Spectrometric Detection of VX, RVX, and Novichok A-Series Nerve Agents for Screening Contaminated Sites Using Atmospheric Pressure Corona Discharge Ionization.
Article in Analytical chemistry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
After a chemical terrorist attack involving nonvolatile and persistent nerve agents with extremely high dermal toxicity, rapid identification of the contaminated area and confirmation of decontamination is important. A method for swabbing surfaces suspected of contamination and conducting screening analysis for the presence of nerve agents will facilitate rapid completion of decontamination activities. In this study, a commercially available nano liquid chromatograph/high-resolution mass spectrometer was modified at low cost to develop an ambient ionization mass spectrometer with atmospheric pressure corona discharge ionization (APCDI) capabilities. The detection performance of the system for nonvolatile nerve agents (VX, RVX, A-230, A-232, A-234, A-242, and A-262) was examined. Monoisotopic peaks of the protonated molecules and their characteristic product ion spectra were observed for all tested compounds. For VX, A-230, and A-242, the detection limits when monitoring the monoisotopic peaks ranged from 0.025 to 0.25 ng. Novichok compounds exhibited higher sensitivity than VX or RVX, although the calculated gas phase basicity values showed little difference among the compounds. Peak intensity reproducibility showed intraday variation of 4.32-31.1% and interday variation of 8.95-44.1%. For samples collected on foam polyethylene swabs, the detection limits of the protonated molecules of VX, A-230, and A-242 were 10-100 ng for samples collected from stainless steel surfaces. This detection limit range is sufficient for screening of contaminated areas. When investigating the sample stability on swabs after collection, we found VX and A-230 remained detectable for 7 days and A-242 remained detectable for 3 days after swabbing of 1000 ng from a stainless steel surface. This developed analytical system is considered suitable for off-site analysis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.