Is there a role for green and sustainable chemistry in chemical disarmament and nonproliferation?

Detoxification of V‐Nerve Agents Assisted by a Microperoxidase: New Pathway Revealed by the Use of a Relevant VX Simulant

“…[12,15] In the frame of the development of sustainable tools for the neutralization of CWA, it is highly desirable to replace Oxone® or m-CPBA with oxidants that generate as little effluents as possible. [16,17] In this sense, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) appears as the optimal reagent since it only releases water as effluent. The widely available 30 % aqueous H 2 O 2 (v/v) is inexpensive, stable, and easy to handle.…”

“…They also display monooxygenase-like activity, as they can catalyze sulfide oxidation, amine N-demethylation, olefin oxidation, and aniline p-hydroxylation. [2,[13][14][15][16] These reactions occur through a high valent heme iron-oxo intermediate -or ferryl species-, that arises from the reaction of either dioxygen in the presence of a reductant, or of H 2 O 2 , or other oxygen-atom donors with the iron(III) heme. This highly reactive species is responsible for the transfer of an oxygen atom to the substrates mentioned above.…”

“…Microperoxidases display a peroxidase activity, meaning that they catalyze the reduction of hydrogen peroxide to water while oxidizing with high versatility and substrate tolerance to a numerous range of co‐substrates such as ABTS, and o‐dianididine pyrogallol. They also display monooxygenase‐like activity, as they can catalyze sulfide oxidation, amine N‐demethylation, olefin oxidation, and aniline p‐hydroxylation [2,13–16] . These reactions occur through a high valent heme iron‐oxo intermediate ‐or ferryl species‐, that arises from the reaction of either dioxygen in the presence of a reductant, or of H 2 O 2 , or other oxygen‐atom donors with the iron(III) heme.…”

Soft detoxification of chemical warfare agent simulants and pesticides under pressure

“…5 Therefore, there is growing interest in developing new flexible methods for a sustainable neutralisation of chemical warfare agents and pesticides under mild conditions and in ensuring effective minimization of toxic product generation. [5][6][7][8] Since the toxicity of these substances is directly connected to their high electrophilicity, the use of water as a nucleophilic scavenger of such compounds (i.e. hydrolysis) could be an ideal detoxification path.…”

Simple and highly active strontium-based catalyst for detoxification of an organophosphorus chemical warfare agent simulant

“…The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) establishes that chemical warfare agents throughout the world must be declared and destroyed safely and quickly (Forman and Timperley 2019). This scenario motivates the academic community and industry to develop research on chemical detoxification, due to the existence of large stockpiles of such warfare agents awaiting destruction (Smith 2008;Jang et al 2015;Manfredi et al 2016) [for example, as of January 2019, stocks of these substances totaled over 2300 tons (OPCW by the Numbers)], and also because of recent episodes of clandestine use of chemical weapons, such as that involving sarin in Syria in 2017 (Price 2019).…”