Chromatography and mass spectrometry of chemical warfare agents, toxins and related compounds: state of the art and future prospects.

Methods for the identification of chemical warfare agents, toxins, bioregulators and related products are frequently reported in literature. These methods are often based on instrumental analysis using chromatography (gas and liquid) and mass spectrometry. Here, these instrumental techniques are discussed in several applications, new developments and trends based on a review of the literature published since 1990. Apart from new instrumental developments, it is shown that modern analytical chemistry can be successfully applied to perform identification in the broad field of analytes ranging from chemical to biological warfare agents.