Chemical Weapons   (279H2)

Academic year:

2024/2025.

Attendance requirements:

There are no requirements.

ECTS:

10

Study level:

Study programs:

Teacher:

Ljubodrag V. Vujisić, Ph.D.
associate professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Studentski trg 12-16, Beograd

Assistants:

—

Hours of instruction:

Weekly: five hours of lectures + three hours of study research work

Goals:

Students should get acquainted with:

• History of chemical weapons and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
• Classes of chemical warfare agents, including industrial substances covered by CWC
• Industrial chemicals that can be also used as precursors of chemical agents (double usage of chemicals)
• Strategy of chemical weapons analysis: sample collection and preparation, off-site and on-site analysis by modern instrumental methods.

Outcome:

Students should be able to:

• Understand the physical and chemical properties of the compounds which are used as chemical weapons, the mechanisms of their action, to know their antidotes, precursors, degradation and decontamination products;
• Independently collect and prepare sample, select and apply optimal analytical procedures in order to identify different class of chemical warfare agents.

In addition, students will be able to analyze instrumental data and to create report according to OPCW proficiency test criteria.

Teaching methods:

Lectures, workshops, homework, seminar paper.

Extracurricular activities:

Guest lectures.

Coursebooks:

Main coursebooks:

1. Chemical weapons convention chemicals analysis sample collection, preparation and analytical methods, Editor Markku Mesilaakso, Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc. (2005), ISBN 0-470-85425-1
2. Recommended operating procedures for analysis in the verification of chemical disarmament, Editor: Paula Vanninen, Publisher: University of Helsinki (2011), ISBN 978-952-10-7408-0
3. Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction, Publisher: Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons - OPCW (2005)
4. Recent scientific papers

Supplementary coursebooks:

1. Slobodan Milosavljević: Strukturne instrumentalne metode, Publisher: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade (2014) ISBN 978-86-7220-066-9
2. Vele Tešević: Osnove masene spektrometrije organskih jedinjenja, Publisher: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade (2013), ISBN 978-86-7220-054-6
3. Erno Pretsch, Philippe Buhlmann, Martin Badertscher: Structure Determination of Organic Compounds, Publisher: Springer Berlin (2009), ISBN 978-3-540-93809-5
4. Work Instruction for the Reporting of the Results of the OPCW Proficiency Tests (QDOC/LAB/WI/PT04)
5. www.opcw.org
   

Additional material:

—

Lectures:

0 points (5 hours a week)

Syllabus:

• History of chemical weapons
• Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), UN and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
• Types of chemical agents and antidotes - the mechanisms of their action
  Blister Agents
  Blood Agents
  Nerve Agents
  Riot Control Agents
  Potential CW Agents
  Mustard Agents
  Psychotomimetic Agents
  Toxins
• Awareness about dual usage of industrial chemicals
• Sample collection and on-site analysis
• Sample preparation strategy
• Instrumental methods in chemical weapons analysis
  Gas and liquid chromatography (GC-FPD(P,S), GC-NPD, GC-AED, GC-ECD, GC-FID, LC-DAD, LC-RID)
  Gas and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-EI-MS, GC-CI-MS, GC-MS-MS, GC-HRMS, LC-ESI-MS, LC-APCI-MS, LC-MS-MS, LC-HRMS, LC-MSⁿ)
  Nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ¹⁵N NMR, ¹⁹F NMR, ³¹P NMR, 2D NMR)
• Data analysis (AMDIS, NIST, OCAD, MassHunter, Chem Station, Mass Profiler)
• OPCW Proficiency test and report writing
• Regional and international cooperation in prohibition of chemical weapons

Semester papers:

30 points

Oral exam:

70 points

Study research work:

0 points (3 hours a week)