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The basic production process for tabun:
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Developed by Germany during World War II and
was later employed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Tabun synthesis does not require the use of
corrosive starting materials and does not produce
highly reactive intermediates. The two-step proc-
ess involves mixing the ingredients and a carrier
solvent in a reaction vessel equipped with a
sodium-hydroxide scrubbing system to neutralize
the gaseous hydrochloric acid (HC1) byproduct. A
relatively simple air-tight enclosure is also needed
to prevent the escape of toxic vapors. The
ingredients must be added in the correct order,
without heating, and the vessel cooled to keep the
reaction from building up too much heat. Little or
no distillation equipment is required, although the
purity of tabun can be increased to more than 80
percent by removing the carrier solvent and the
off-gasses by vacuum distillation.
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In sum, tabun
production is relatively easy because it does not
include the difficult alkylation reaction needed to
make the other nerve agents. The major techni-
cal hurdle in tabun synthesis is the cyanation
reaction (in which a cyanide group is added to
the central phosphorus), because of the diffi-
culty of containing the toxic hydrogen cyanide
HCN gas used as the reagen
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