Evaluation of new trends on the preparation of compounds relating to chemical warfare agents
The organic chemistry field is continuously evolving with the apparition of new techniques. Initially based on academic focus, these methods are now widely investigated by the chemical industrial production. The new fluorinating agents, which are now commercially available, are particularly interesting for the preparation of the G agents, such as Sarin and Soman, for example. The developments of microwave reactors, as well as the continuous flow technique (microreactor), are thus reported as going to strongly influence the concepts of chemical processing on both laboratory and industrial scale.
The impact of these new synthetic methods is of highest interest for the national and international export control community, such as the seco, the Australia Group (AG) and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Indeed, the challenge is to evaluate the impact of these new trends on the preparation of chemical warfare agents. Are they a threat for the implementation of the Chemical Weapon Convention (CWC) and the export control regime?