Unveiling impurity profiling of organophosphorus synthetic pathways
through LC-HRMS metabolomics-based approaches
Abstract
Sourcing in chemical forensic science refers to the attribution of a
sample to a specific source using a characteristic signature. It relies
on the identification of chemical attribution signatures (CAS),
including chemical markers such as residual synthetic precursors,
impurities, reaction by-products and degradation products, or even
metabolites. Undertaking CAS for chemical threat agents (CTA) can be
used to provide an evidentiary link between the use of a given chemical
and its precursor(s) to support forensic investigations.
Organophosphorus compounds, a class of nerve agents can be produced by
different, more or less complex synthesis routes that can lead to
specific CAS. Chlorpyrifos (CPF), an organophosphorus pesticide was
selected as model compound. To assess the specificity of impurity
markers originated from a chemical synthesis, untargeted fingerprints of
crude CPF from different synthesis pathways were analyzed as a first
use-case using metabolomics-based trace discovery strategies. Seven
different CPF synthesis routes were considered and their crude mixtures
were analyzed with a minimal sample preparation. Analyses were performed
on a trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) coupled to liquid
chromatography (LC) and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS).
Chemometrics analyses were conducted with multivariate methods to
extract discriminating features (i.e. relevant impurities), annotate and
identify them. Then, unknown samples were analyzed in blind conditions
without any information of the synthesis pathway employed. The aim is to
validate the methodology seeking some discriminating impurities
identified in the first section to attribute and classify them according
to the synthesis route.