A-234 (nerve agent)
A-234 is an organophosphate nerve agent. It was developed in the Soviet Union under the FOLIANT program and is one of the group of compounds referred to as Novichok agents that were revealed by Vil Mirzayanov. In March 2018 the Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, claimed to have been informed by British authorities that A-234 had been identified as the agent used in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Vladimir Uglev, one of the inventors of the Novichok series of compounds, said he was "99 percent sure that it was A-234" in relation to the 2018 Amesbury poisonings, noting its unusually high persistence in the environment.
| Names | |
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| IUPAC name
ethyl N-[(1E)-1-(diethylamino)ethylidene]-phosphoramidofluoridate | |
| Other names
N-2-diethylaminomethylacetamido-ethoxyphosphonofluoridate | |
| Identifiers | |
3D model (JSmol) |
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PubChem CID |
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CompTox Dashboard (EPA) |
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SMILES
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| Properties | |
| C8H18FN2O2P | |
| Molar mass | 224.216 g·mol−1 |
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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According to a classified report by the United States Army National Ground Intelligence Center, the agent designated as A-232 and its ethyl analog A-234, developed under the FOLIANT program, were "as toxic as VX, as resistant to treatment as soman, and more difficult to detect and easier to manufacture than VX".
No certain data on toxicity exist but it is estimated that the median lethal concentration of A-234 is 7 mg/m3. This means that half of 70 kg men under slight physical activity – breathing 15 litres of air per minute – would die within two minutes of exposure. This equates to median lethal dose of 0.2 mg via respiration.