Vapor Pressure Data and Analysis for Selected Organophosphorous Compounds: DIBMP, DCMP, IMMP, IMPA, EMPA, and MPFA

Determining the thermophysical properties of chemical warfare agent simulants can help evaluate the performance of defensive equipment.

Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Knowledge of the physical properties of materials is critical for understanding their behavior in the environment as well as in the laboratory. Vapor pressure is an important physical property for a wide variety of chemical defense-related applications, including estimation of persistence, prediction of downwind time-concentration profiles after dissemination, generation of controlled challenge concentrations for detector testing, evaluation of toxicological properties, and assessment of the efficiency of air filtration systems.

The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD) has a long history of interest in quantification of the physical properties of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and related materials, including the development of correlations to enable the accurate prediction of values at untested temperatures. Recent efforts have focused on investigation and documentation of vapor pressure and properties that were derived from such data, including temperature correlations, volatility, and temperature-dependent enthalpy of volatilization (vaporization for liquids and sublimation for solids) for CWAs and related compounds.