Victor’s last PhD project, conducted along with Diana, is just out in Green Chemistry: “A Continuous Flow Generator of Organic Hypochlorites for the Neutralization of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants”.
The paper describes a protocol for the neutralisation of sulfur-based, “mustard gas”-type agents using alkyl hypochlorites. The procedure entails the generation of tBuOCl, which promotes the near-instantaneous oxidative degradation of the Chemical Warfare Agents upon addition. The setup relies on affordable reagents and solvents, was demonstrated on the mesofluidic scane and displays a higher efficiency (Space Time Yield = 3.74 kg L-1 h-1) than similar neutralisation methods (based on singlet oxygen or oxone).
This work builds upon previous investigations on the neutralisation of Chemical Warfare Agents in our group and Julien Legros’.
Congratulations to lead authors Diana and Victor as well as co-authors Thomas Bernard!