Using 7‐chlor‐4‐nitrobenzo‐2‐oxa‐1,3‐diazole for mass spectrometric and gas. Chromatographic mass spectrometric analysis of N ‐nitrosamines in environmental samples

A mass spectrometric method for quantitative determination of volatile N ‐nitrosamines, based on analysis of the derivatives formed from secondary amines produced by denitrosation of N ‐nitrosamines when they are reacted with 7‐chlor‐4‐nitrobenzo‐2‐oxa‐1,3‐diazole, is proposed. The method has been applied to the quantitative analysis of 3‐4 component mixtures of N ‐nitrosamines without preliminary separation. The detection limit was 1 ng with a relative standard deviation of 0.13–0.25. A gas chromatographic mass spectrometric method for the identification and quantification of multicomponent mixtures of N ‐nitrosamines was also developed with a detection limit of 1 ng μ1 −1 and relative standard deviation of 0.11–0.22. These methods are recommended for N ‐nitrosamine determination in environmental samples and have the advantage that the standards can be prepared not from carcinogenic N ‐nitrosamines, but directly from the respective secondary amines.