DETECTION/IDENTIFICATION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC PHOSPHONATES AND PHOSPHATES BY SIMS.

The detection and identification of organophosphonate and organophosphate compounds in the environment is important because many chemical warfare agents and insecticides belong to these classes of compounds. These compounds are unusually biologically active at low concentrations and are generally present as components of complex mixtures. Therefore, sensitive and selective techniques are required for their analyses. It appears that the ionization of vapor phase organophosphorous compounds by using SIMS with a PPA matrix imparts considerable selectivity to the analysis. Amines are the only major class of compounds that are known to have the potential to interfere with this analysis. For certain analytes, the sensitivity achieved by using this ionization technique is as good as that achieved by using chemical ionization.