A library of spectral patterns as a tool for the rapid and reliable identification of highly toxic O-alkyl-S-2-(N,N-dialkylamino)ethyl alkyl thiophosphonates based on electron-ionization mass spectra

A rapid and reliable method for group identification based on the fragmentation of highly toxic O-alkyl-S-2-(N,N-dialkylamino)ethyl alkyl thiophosphonates using electron-ionization mass spectra was proposed. This method makes it possible to relate a test substance to one of the four groups of compounds containing two identical alkyl substituents at the nitrogen atom (methyl, ethyl, propyl, or isopropyl). The essence of this method is that the mass spectrum of the test substance is compared with the generalized mass-spectrometric patterns of each of the four groups of this class with the aid of a standard procedure utilized in the NIST information retrieval program.