From the Decomposition of Chemical Warfare Agents to the Decontamination of Cytostatics

The ability of pilot samples of destructive metal oxide sorbents to decompose a sulfur mustard-type chemical warfare agent into nontoxic products in a nonaqueous solvent was compared with that of the commercial product FAST-ACT. Additionally, samples of the destructive metal oxide sorbents were used to decompose nitrogen mustards, which are used as chemotherapeutic agents, in water, and the results, were compared with those of FAST-ACT. All the prepared pilot samples exhibited stoichiometric activities, i.e., the degradation rate expressed by the rate constant, k [s(-1), min(-1), and the decomposition efficiencies, which are expressed by the degree of conversion d [%], higher than those of the comparative commercial product FAST-ACT. Scaling up the sulfur mustard decomposition from the laboratory conditions (reaction volume, 4 L) to quarter operating (pilot) reaction conditions (reaction volume, 100 L) had a positive effect on the reaction and final product.